Deadly Natural Disasters That Carry A Deadlier Message

Could anyone still say that the multitude of natural disasters of 2004 were mere cycles of nature, no different from those that have struck this planet in the past?

For over a decade we have warned the world that end time prophecies were in the making, that things would get progressively worse until humanity has learned the lesson that it cannot live without its Maker, yet few people took note of our warnings. Now, all of a sudden, world leaders and scientists are up in the arms over what is happening to this planet.

Year 2004 ended up with what the United Nations said was the worst natural disaster in its history, a tsunami of such magnitude that killed people in the hundreds of thousands and destroyed the livelihood of millions of people in twelve countries around the Indian Ocean. That was only the culmination of a series of catastrophes that struck all over the world.

There were four times more devastating hurricanes than usual in America, eight times more typhoons in the seas around Japan, floods of the century in China, India and Bangladesh, droughts of the century in Australia, mid west America, Africa and elsewhere, extremes of weather from draught to floods in Europe, deadly earthquakes in many parts of the world but especially in east Asia, plagues of locusts in Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and elsewhere, epidemics that threaten the future of many nations in the Third World, and general weather upheavals in all countries of the world.

Some television stations had the headline “Apocalypse” in the background as they read reports of these disasters, but generally speaking few people took seriously the notion that we are really in the end time. But if these are not the signs that Jesus Christ said would preceded the Great Tribulation and His return to this earth, then we would like to know what they are. Let us have a look at what He said.

Mat 24:1 “Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.

Mat 24:2 And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

Mat 24:3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"

Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you.

Mat 24:5 "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.

Mat 24:6 "And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Mat 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes

Mat 24:8 in various places. "All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Mat 24:9 "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.

Mat 24:10 "And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

Mat 24:11 "Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

Mat 24:12 "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

Mat 24:13 "But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Mat 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Mat 24:15 "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand),

Mat 24:16 "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Mat 24:17 "Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.

Mat 24:18 "And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.

Mat 24:19 "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!

Mat 24:20 "And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.

Mat 24:21 "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Mat 24:22 "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.

Mat 24:23 "Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.

Mat 24:24 "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Mat 24:25 "See, I have told you beforehand.

Mat 24:26 "Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it.

Mat 24:27 "For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Mat 24:28 "For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

Mat 24:29 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Mat 24:30 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Mat 24:31 "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Mat 24:32 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that

Mat 24:33 summer is near. "So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near; at the doors!

Mat 24:34 "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.

Mat 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

Mat 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

Mat 24:37 "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. "For as in the days before the flood,

Mat 24:38 they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

Mat 24:39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Mat 24:40 "Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.

Mat 24:41 "Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

Mat 24:42 "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

Mat 24:43 "But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.

Mat 24:44 "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Every single sign that Jesus Christ spoke about in this prophecy has been fulfilled, which means that the world is now in line for their culmination into the Great Tribulation and His return to this earth.

What is astounding about these impending world shattering events is that although the world has been warned about them countless times, it will still be taken buy surprise by their fulfilment. If you think that the earthquakes and the tsunamis that struck this planet last year were unprecedented, consider the magnitude of the earthquake that will precede Jesus’ return.

Rev 16:17 “ Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the

Rev 16:18 throne, saying, "It is done!" And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.

Rev 16:19 Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.

Rev 16:20 Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

Rev 16:21 And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.

Rev 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, "Come, I will show you the

Rev 17:2 judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication."

The current world travails are mere warnings of a catastrophe the likes of which the world has never seen, an earthquake of such magnitude that will flatten the cities of the nations, cover every island and flatten mountains. Those who think that this event is yet a long way in the future, will have a crude realisation soon. Our writings are a witness that we have done our duty before the world, before our Savior and before our God.

After providing countless scriptural and historical proofs of the bona fide of this work, we can do no more than add to it the latest scientific alarms about global warming and the threat it poses to the very survival of life on this planet, and the need for our heavenly Father to hasten the return of our Lord Jesus Christ and the setting up of the Millennium Kingdom without delay.

“Polar Ice Caps Melting” “Scientists have found that the ice caps in Greenland are melting ten times faster than previously thought. What’s happening to the Greenland icesheet is considered a key measure of climatic change, and a sure sign that sea levels will rise dramatically. “The vast formidable landscape of the Greenland icesheet, compared to which our helicopter is but a speck moving beside it, is one of the largest masses of ice in the world. If it melts, the global sea levels will rise seven meters.

This is the frontline of what many scientists see as a key factor in climate change. It’s remote and hostile, but what happens here could affect us all. This is volatile terrain. Huge icebergs brake away all the time, but the latest evidence is alarming – the recent melting is far beyond what normally happens in summer. It is ten times faster than previously thought.

This is the very edge of the icesheet, and scientists have discovered that it is in retreat at an alarming speed. To give you a sense of scale, this massive wall of ice behind me, is dropping in hight at a rate of one meter a month. Whatever it causes, something pretty drastic is going on here. “If we’d been here three months ago, how much higher would we be standing”, asked the reporter a local person.

“It’s all changed in just a century. Back then the glaciers were pictured as being far larger. A satellite picture traces the extraordinary retreat of the ice, speeding up in the last fifteen years [Remember, fifteen years ago is when we started this work]. As a simulation shows what could happen – the whole thing is simply vanishing.”

“Ferdinand and his family, has started cultivating potatoes. In the year 2000, he says, it got warmer [Remember, in the year 2000 we unveiled Daniel’s prophecies about the end time]. Before that, the sea froze solid in winter. Now we are growing things like never before. Scientists don’t understand it, but they are clear on two things: there is change, and the whole world will feel it.” (SBS TV, July 29, 2004).

Antarctic Ice Caps Melting Eight Times Faster Than a Decade Ago “As the UN latest climate control conference gets under way, the United States has again resisted calls to ratify the Kyoto protocol. Leaders and environmentalists from 150 nations are gathering in Buenos Aires, just as scientists reveal that Antarctica’s ice shelf is melting much more quickly than previously thought.

Jason Om (reporter): “Under the surface, Antarctica’s glaciers are on the move. And according to a team of NASA scientists, much of the ice is melting.”

Bob Thomas, Project Manager: “This has major implications, certainly for the next 10 to 100 years. Because if sea levels start to raise from this course, it will be impossible not to turn it into a rout.”

J.O. “Researchers believe as the ice shells crack, the glaciers from behind start to accelerate into the sea at a rate eight times faster than a decade ago.”

Jim Yungel, NASA scientist. “We’re finding this in ice caps in Greenland; we’re finding this in ice caps from northern Canada . . .” Almost everywhere we are making measurements around the world, the ice is in retreat.”

J.O. It’s more bad news for world leaders gathering in Buenos Aires. They’re here for the UN’s tenth annual climate change conference. Over the next ten days, they will discuss measures beyond the Kyoto protocol. It comes into force in February and requires its thirty nine signatories to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. But without the world’s worst polluter, the United States, the treaty will fail to achieve its stated aims. Washington remains adamant that the targets are too costly and unfair.

New figures show that China is now the world’s second biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, pumping out one seventh of the world’s CO2 emissions. The United States is responsible for nearly a quarter. Outside the conference, protesters are unhappy at the lack of progress.

Juan Carlos Villalonga, Greenpeace. “There is absolutely no balance. In ten years, the world hasn’t been able to agree what type of effort to make to reduce emissions, despite the fact that there is an urgent problem.”

J.O. “Australia, the other industrialised nation refusing to sign up, is expected to face renewed pressure to do so.” (SBS, TV News, December 7, 2004)

We strongly recommend that people read our article “Is It A Question Of Survival Or Salvation?” in The Christian Herald No 3, which we published as early as 1993. They will see where the roots of many of the current world problems lay. Here is a quote from that article.

“The former Soviet Union gave us Chernobyl then it collapsed. The world breathed a sigh of relief in the hope that the Cold War and the danger of nuclear confrontation were over. What the world did not know then was that the legacy of communism is just as catastrophic for the world as the danger from its nuclear arsenals: "Russia's nuclear-powered submarines and ice-breakers pose a greater danger of nuclear accidents than do its atomic power plants, according to Jane's Intelligence review" (The Sun-Herald, August 8,1993).

People who are environmentally conscious know about the devastation caused by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. But how many people know that in the vast Russian wilderness, four times that amount is being spilled every day from the decaying antiquated oil installations? The damage done to the environment by the oil spill and its many accompanying fires is incalculable. The topsoil is being destroyed and the ground below, which was permanently frozen, is beginning to melt. Scientists fear that this will affect the global climate. Already in 1990, the temperature in the Arctic Circle reached 40 degrees Celsius, eight degrees above the normal.

On the political scene, things are hardly better. The West has put all its hopes in President Yeltsin's ability and determination to introduce democratic reforms in Russia. But what will happen when he is no longer on the scene? He is in poor health, and while there seem to be no obvious contenders who can step in his shoes and continue his reforms, there are many powerful rivals who call for the restoration of the Russian empire.

On the economic sphere, the one great resource that gives Russia its hard currency and keeps its grossly outdated industry going, is oil. But now it has been estimated that its oil reserves will dry out within a decade. What will the political and military leaders do when they see their people being decimated by hunger and their nuclear arsenal brought to nothing for lack of fuel? The dangers coming from that part of the world are yet to be comprehended.

“Last year, gathered at the Rio International Summit, more than one hundred heads of states to discuss the frightening deterioration of the environment. They discussed things, and that's all. Has anyone heard anything about that event since?

Human beings have an uncanny ability to discuss things when they get to a crisis point, then leave the problems to others to resolve. This time, however, the problems will not be resolved by others. The world is no longer facing temporary local problems, but intractable worldwide problems. It is no longer a question of survival, but one of salvation. But science cannot save; only God can.

Human beings, however, have decided that there is no room for God in their deliberations. Even when the world is crumbling around them, when it is becoming obvious that life itself is in danger of extinction, they will not turn to the only source that can save them.

They seek immortality through "scientific" methods such as cryogenics (deep-freezing of the corpse in the hope that one day scientists will discover the secret of immortality, cure their diseased bodies and revive them to eternal life), and perpetual replacement of body parts with robotic devises or genetically cloned body parts. That's the kind of immortality science offers humanity.

That educated people can come up with such absurdities is a witness to the bankruptcy of our educational system. That is the effect of compartmentalizing our tertiary studies in rigid disciplines without any relation to each other. It should be obligatory for all university students to study humanity subjects. As it is, we get medical graduates without ethics, lawyers without morals, and scientists with distorted visions of the future. They need to study not just any humanity subjects, but the good old fashion classics, philosophy and religion. During my university studies, the head of the Religious Studies Department once said that "time was when in philosophical studies people talked about God and the meaning of life, about ethics and values, but no more." These days they have a "Theory" that if people understand what they study, it is not worth studying.

Searching for truth, God, and a moral purpose in life does not go well with evolutionary thinking. In the struggle for survival there is no room for compassion, altruistic feelings and transcendental goals. Hedonistic materialism and the pursuit of mindless pleasures, are the things that count in our "enlightened" society. That is why humanity finds itself on the brink of catastrophe.” (The Christian Herald No 3, p.4).

When people wonder why the melting of the ice caps has accelerated in the last decade or so they might wish to remember the inferno of oil wells that were set aflame by Saddam Hussein when he was in retreat from Kuwait.

Who is Saddam Hussein? The darling of France, Germany and Russia, which even after the discovery of over three hundred mass graves in Iraq still maintain that his removal was “illegal”, and of Kofi Annan who said that he could do business with him even after he set up those enormous fires which greatly contributed to the global warming.

The following is a report from Australia’s ABC television network about the perilous condition of the world.

TONY JONES [reporter]: Now to tonight's guest - David Goodstein is professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology or Caltech. In his latest book, 'Out of Gas' - the End of the Age of Oil', he explores the consequences of oil reserves getting lower and lower in the coming decades. Professor Goodstein joined us from San Francisco. David Goodstein, thanks for joining us.

PROFESSOR DAVID GOODSTEIN, AUTHOR 'OUT OF GAS': Thank you.

TJ: Your most alarming statement you make in your book is that civilisation as we know it will come to an end before the end of this century when we run out of fuel?

D G: Yes, that is, it's meant to be alarming, it's meant to alarm people, to wake people up and help prevent that from happening.

T J: So, how long do you reckon we've got in reality?

D G: Well, that's not an easy question to answer. We will probably have an oil crisis reasonably soon.
It may have already begun. We are much too close to the situation to know for sure. The information we're given is much too undependable for us to know for sure. It might not actually happen until later this decade or even in the next decade. Those differences are very important to us because we would like to go on living the comfortable lives we lead. But on the long scale of human history 10 or 20 years is absolutely negligible. So we will have a oil crisis. There are other fossil fuels that can be made a substitute for oil, at a price. So we might be able to muddle on for a while, though a much more likely scenario is that we will have resource wars and other terrible things happening. But it is possible we'll be able to muddle on for a while, even turning to coal, for example, which can be liquefied and used as a substitute for oil and which is in very large supply. But if we do all that, for one thing we will do an unpredictable amount of damage to our climate, and for another thing it's my guess that we would start running out of coal. Let us say we would reach the point where we're depleting the resource faster than we can develop new sources probably in the this century.

T J: This is one of the interesting things because people tend to think that coal and natural gas are available in virtually infinite quantities. If oil runs out you can turn to them. What you're saying is all fossil fuels are finite?

D G: All fossil fuels are finite. We don't have a very clear idea of how much there is for the various resources. The historical peak in oil discovery worldwide occurred around 1960, discoveries have been declining ever since. The historic peak and natural gas discoveries occurred in the 1970s and so the maximum for natural gas production probably is only 10 years or so behind that for oil. We seem to make hundreds to thousands of years estimates at the present rate of extraction but that's completely unrealistic because we use twice as much energy now from oil as we do for coal. If you're going to mine coal to substitute for the oil you have to mine it much faster, the conversion process is inefficient, the world's population is increasing. the poorer parts of the world want to be more like us and use more energy and finally, we will run out of, we will be in trouble with coal not when we mine the last tonne, but when we reach the peak production which is about the halfway point.

T J: We've just heard about Hubbard's peak and the speculation that we passed the point of no return. How does anyone know for sure that we're actually past that point?

D G: We can't know for sure. I've always thought that we will know that the peak has occurred when Saudi Arabia maxes out, when it reaches its peak in production. The Saudis claim they will be able to increase their production by a million barrels a day in a relatively short period of time. That promise has not yet been kept. We don't know whether it's true. If you look at the history of what's called proved oil reserves. The proved reserves of oil in the OPEC organisation of petroleum exporting countries, increased by 300 to 400 billion barrels in the late 1980s. There were no important discoveries of oil during that period. What happened instead was that OPEC changed its quota system how much oil each country could pump based on in part its claimed reserves and the claimed reserves just appeared out of nowhere by magic. So half the world's proved reserves may be an illusion and the information we're given is so undependable we really just can't say.

T J: Do you believe oil companies have lied about this?

D G: We know that Royal Dutch Shell did because they were audited by the SEC, by an external auditor an independent auditor forced to reduce their estimated reserves by 20 per cent. That sent shock waves through the entire oil industry. But 90 per cent of the proved reserves are held by countries, not by companies and nobody ordered the Saudi books.

T J: Have we really discovered all the remaining great oilfields though. We know for example geologists claim there is a great lake of oil under Antarctica?

D G: The people who would like to believe that the Hubbard's peak is further away than some of us fear, believe that we may make great discoveries in the deep oceans and the Antarctic, as you say, and central and northern Siberia and so on. I think they're grasping at straws. Two-thirds of the world's oil reserves are in the Middle East the Persian Gulf. That's 10 times as much as Africa, ten times as much as the Middle East, ten times as much as in the former Soviet Union. There are no other important players in the game. We recently saw a spike because there were a couple of storms in the Gulf of Mexico. Just think of what's going to happen when the Saudi regime collapses.

T J: As we know, many scientists are convinced that global warming is happening so fast that if we don't stop burning fossil feel fuels the earth will reach within 30 years a catastrophic tipping point. Are you saying that effectively we're going to run out of fossil fuels before we destroy the environment?

D G: There are some people who see that as the silver lining in the cloud. We'll reach Hubbard's peak and have to reduce our burning of fossil fuels and that will keep us from damaging and doing irreversible damage to the planet. It seems to me that's like hoping that the patient will have a fatal heart attack to save him from dying of cancer. It's not the way I think we ought to do things.

T J: Professor James Lovelock who's called by many the father of the environmental movement says "the industry world must now embrace nuclear power as the only viable alternative to oil and other fossil fuels". What do you say to that argument?

D G: It depends on what kind of nuclear power you mean. If you mean the kind of conventional power that we use for power in the United States, burning uranium 235, which is a rare isotope of uranium, there are a couple of problems. One of them is you would have to build 10,000 of the largest power plants that are feasible by engineering standards in order to replace the 10 terawatts of fossil fuel we're burning today. 10,000 nuclear plants of the largest kind possible - that's a staggering amount and if you did that, the known reserves of uranium would last for 10 to 20 years at that burn rate. So, it's at best a bridging technology. If you're talking about nuclear fusion, then in the long range the fuel is almost limitless but it's been 25 years away for the past 50 years and it's still 25 years away. It has been said of nuclear fusion and also shell oil which is one of the possible fossil fuels that they are the energy sources of the future and always will be.

T J: So, with nuclear power, even if we could build those 10,000 nuclear power plants presumably right around the world it would only be a temporary thing?

D G: It would only be a temporary fix. You can use the rest of the uranium to breed plutonium 239 then we'd have at least 100 times as much fuel to use. But that means you're making plutonium, which is an extremely dangerous thing to do in the dangerous world that we live in.

T J: So, what do you say then to the arguments of the Professor Lovelock and others, who say that nuclear power is the only alternative to avoid reaching the fatal tipping point?

D. G. I agree with them. I think that we must make use of all possible alternatives to fossil fuels, nuclear power included. I'm just trying to stress that it's not the magic bullet that will by itself save us from our problems, but I certainly think we have to use it.

T. J. There is one other alternative we should be talking about and that is hydrogen as fuel for future motor cars.
What do you think of the hydrogen alternative?

D. G. Hydrogen is made from fossil fuel. It is not a substitute for fossil fuels. It's just a way of conveying energy. It is not a source of energy. The economics today are if you make hydrogen by burning fossil fuel to generate electricity and then electrolyse water to make the hydrogen, it will require somewhere between three and six gallons of gasoline to make enough hydrogen to replace one gallon of gasoline. So, a hydrogen economy doesn't solve anything really. In the long-term future if you had plenty of fusion power available, stationary power, and the only problem was to make it mobile to serve for transportation then making hydrogen might make sense.

T. J. So, what you're saying is that right now, making hydrogen could actually create more global warming than we're seeing at the moment?

D. G. Yes, unless you make it from renewable sources such as solar energy or atomic energy.

T. J. You were pointing out, and I think this is one of your major points - there is no magic bullet. So, presumably we have to combine our efforts using what we have - solar power, wind power, tidal power in combinations unlike anything we have seen before. Is that feasible though, would any politicians agree to make such great changes?

D. G. Well, we went through a presidential election in the US in which neither party mentioned anything having to do with this problem, which I think is the most important problem of our era. Politicians do not want to touch this subject. Any politician who tells Americans that they'll have to give up their SUVs has committed political suicide. But it does seem to me that a courageous and visionary politician could say to us, "by burning fossil fuels we're putting ourselves at the mercy of some very nasty and unstable parts of the world and we're also endangering the climate of our planet. For the sake of our children and grandchildren we simply must learn to kick the fossil fuel habit." If that kind of challenge were given to our scientists and engineers I think we could do it.

T. J. But as you say, the vision our political leaders is usually constricted to the three or four years of their electoral cycles.
How long would be it be before the crisis reaches the point where great powers have no choice but to a make radical decisions?

D. G. It's impossible to guess. Everything we read about in the papers every day suggests that the worldwide system for production and distribution of oil is stretched to the breaking point. That certainly is a symptom one would expect if we have already reached the peak. But the fact we have a symptom doesn't mean we have already reached the peak, it's just an indication.
As I say, we are too close to the situation. The information we get is far too undependable for us to say. I can not predict how soon it will happen. But it will happen and when it happens there will be a huge price shock in the cost of gasoline at the pump, in the cost of everything that has to be transported and not insignificantly, in the cost of all petrochemicals. There are 6.4 billion people living on the planet today.
Most of them reasonably well-fed as a result of what was called the 'green revolution' in the second half of the 20th Century. That consisted in a very large part of fertilising land using petrochemical-based fertilisers. So, that stuff is pretty valuable. I don't think we can sustain the population we have today, much less what we'll have in 20 or 50 years without petrochemical fertilisers.

T. J. Just looking around the world, do you see any political leaders who appears to understand the full extent of this crisis?

D. G. If there is one I have not met him or her yet.

T. J. All right. Let's try, if we can, to end on a positive note. Are you confident that human ingenuity, scientific ingenuity will in the end find a way out of this problem?

D. G. I'm hopeful, not confident.

T. J. Professor David Goodstein, let's hope we have better news for our children and grandchildren than you're predicting. We thank you though, for joining us.

D. G. Okay. (Broadcast by Australia’s ABC television network on November 23, 2004).

We conclude this article with a short quote from Australia’s largest circulation newspaper.

“2004 in top ten warmest” “A two-week hot spell in February, which set new temperature records, contributed to last year being ranked the 10^th hottest year on record [in Australia]. The Bureau of Meteorology’s Annual Australian Climate Summary released yesterday said preliminary data showed the country’s annual mean temperature was 0.45C above the 1961-1990 long-term average, making 2004 the tenth warmest year since 1910. In February, temperatures reached 48.5C in Ivanhoe in western NSW and 46.7C in Ouyen, south of Mildura in Victoria. The general rise in Australian temperatures during the second half of the 20^th century was in line with global warming trends, the survey said. The World Meteorological Organisation reported the global mean temperature for 2004 at 0.44C above normal, the fourth warmest year since records began in 1861. The survey showed rainfall patterns to be far from uniform despite the 2004 average of 507mm outstripping the long-term average of 472mm.” (The Daily Telegraph, January 7, 2005).

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”

Just what did Jesus Christ mean when He made that statement? The Jews of His day thought that they knew the truth and were free, yet He told them that they neither knew the truth nor were free, but were in fact children of the Devil.

John 8:31 “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.

John 8:32 "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

John 8:33 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, 'You will be made free'?"

John 8:34 Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

John 8:35 "And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.

John 8:36 "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

John 8:37 "I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.

John 8:38 "I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."

John 8:39 They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.

John 8:40 "But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.

John 8:41 "You do the deeds of your father." Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father; God."

John 8:42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.

John 8:43 "Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.

John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the

John 8:45 father of it. "But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.”

The implications of these statements are enormous, not the least because they have been misunderstood by most people, particularly by those who have transformed them into a doctrine of hatred towards the Jews. What they fail to understand is that in their natural state ALL human beings are the same, all are children of the Devil.

Luke 13:1 “There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their

Luke 13:2 sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other

Luke 13:3 Galileans, because they suffered such things? "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

Luke 13:4 "Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all

Luke 13:5 other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."

Repentance is the catalyst that changes human nature, the conscious act of mature individuals that changes them from children of the Devil into children of God.

Since the beginning of time God had people in the world who passed on this message to humanity, people who spoke His truth without fear or favour. There are countless examples of people who did so after the Flood of Noah, but not many people know that there were prophets of God who spoke His truth before the Flood too. Here is but one such example.

Jude 1:14 “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten

Jude 1:15 thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

Speaking the truth of God in this world, however, has never been easy or welcomed. People would rather go their own way and “do their own thing” than have God in their proximity and take note of His messages. The very first human beings run away from God when they sinned, rather than repent, a characteristic they passed on to all their descendants.

Even the “chosen people”, who saw an extraordinary array of miracles when they were delivered from Egyptian slavery, became uncomfortable with God in their proximity and demanded a mediator between them and God. It is worth having a fresh look at their story.

Lev 25:55 'For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Exo 19:3 And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:

Exo 19:4 “'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself.

Exo 19:5 'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 'And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'

Exo 19:6 These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."

Exo 20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying:

Exo 20:2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Exo 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before Me. (The First Commandment).

Exo 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth

Exo 20:5 beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Exo 20:6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (The Second Commandment).

Exo 20:7 "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. (The Third Commandment).

Exo 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Exo 20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

Exo 20:10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (The Fourth Commandment).

Exo 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you. (The Fifth Commandment).

Exo 20:13 "You shall not murder. (The Sixth Commandment).

Exo 20:14 "You shall not commit adultery. (The Seventh Commandment).

Exo 20:15 "You shall not steal. (The Eighth Commandment).

Exo 20:16 "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (The Ninth Commandment).

Exo 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." (The Tenth Commandment).

Exo 20:18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.

Exo 20:19 Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die."

Exo 20:20 And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin."

They loved their life so much they feared they would die if God spoke with them directly, yet all He wanted was to test them and teach them a lesson so that they may not sin and depart from His ways; that they may obey His Commandments and treasure the Covenant He made with them. That Covenant would have given them protection against their enemies, and unsurpassed blessings, but He conditioned it on their obedience to Him and on keeping His Commandments.

Exo 23:20 "Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

Exo 23:21 "Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.

Exo 23:22 "But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your

Lev 26:1 adversaries.” “You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God.

Lev 26:2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD.

Lev 26:3 'If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them,

Lev 26:4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. . . “

Lev 26:7 You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.

Lev 26:8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword

Lev 26:9 before you. 'For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you. . . ”

Lev 26:14 'But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes,

Lev 26:15 or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant,

Lev 26:16 I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

Lev 26:17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.

Lev 26:18 'And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins . . .”