The Whirling Tempest / June 1999
- Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath, even a whirling tempest; it will swirl down on the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; in the last days you will clearly understand it.
- Jeremiah 23:19-20
- If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?
- Amos 3:6
- The Middle East Peace Accord is to be completed; Jerusalem's fate is to be determined.
- The world will celebrate the new millennium, the Biblical year 6,000.
- The Palestinian state will be declared; the Middle East will be on the brink of war as Arafat exercises its sovereign will.
- The Pope is to visit Israel in March of 2,000; the prophetic scenario demands a “false prophet” to directly influence events on the temple mount.
- The Y2k issue will be in full force with almost every nation in emergency status (including the United States).
- The sun will be peaking in its disturbed activities causing a series of difficulties for the earth.
- The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
- II Peter 3:9-13
- For just as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.
- Luke 17:24
As the large mass of cold dry air began to settle over the western plains, it began to collide with the warm moist air coming from the gulf. A line of conflict emerged from north Texas and cut through the heart of Oklahoma into Kansas. The cold dry air was high in the atmosphere in a low pressure area causing it to rotate in a counter clockwise fashion. The warm moist air was at low altitude flowing up into the plains producing our famous southerly winds. As the cold air fell, it faced warm air trying to rise. The conflict was north to south, cold to warm, high to low, and dry to moist. This is the thermodynamic of a super cell (the most severe type thunderstorm known on the earth). Super cells produce tornadoes.
The formation of these storm cells over the plains did not catch the weather forecasters off guard. Even as thunderstorms began to form, tornado watches were posted. Emergency managers of cities and towns affected were notified to be on the alert. Storm spotters from the four winds raced to specific counties anticipating storm activity to provide on-site verification and gather technical data on the storm's progress.
Just as predicted, mesocyclone formations appeared. Whole storm cells ranging from a few miles to a dozen miles began their ominous counter clockwise rotation. Warm air, trying to gain altitude, had found a cooperative chimney, while letting cold air drop to a lower altitude in a funnel formation. Tornadoes were being born. To be more specific, fifty one different tornadoes were being formed just in Oklahoma. One particular tornado, however, was to take precedence over them all.
Weather forecasters use a special classification for the size of tornadoes. Named after a Japanese scientist, it is simply called the F scale. There are five levels. The highest level, an F5 tornado must have winds at least 260 miles per hour but can be as much as 318 miles per hour. An F5 tornado has the strongest winds known to man on the earth. Very large hurricanes have winds of 150+ miles per hour; the largest tornado can double that velocity. Because wind velocity is the destructive element, this is the unit of measure for the power of the tornado.
It began southwest of Oklahoma City more than 20 miles away. The whole storm cell seemed to lower all at once. The funnel cloud itself was more than a mile wide. The entire mesocyclone (the engine for the storm) was more than seven miles wide. At the ground, the immediate and most devastating area ranged from a quarter of a mile to one mile. A mobile Doppler radar used by the weather service to gather the technical data included the tornado velocity. The radar reported the radial velocity at 318 miles per hour. One more mile per hour and we would have had the first recorded F6 tornado.
As the tornado moved into the Oklahoma City metro, smaller communities were erased. The specific area of destruction picked up everything. By everything, I mean everything. Every tree, every house, the asphalt from the road and even the grass in the pasture. What remained was barren ground, flat foundations and strewn debris for as far as the eye could see. It is not that the tree was just uprooted and blow over. First, the branches of the tree were ripped off down to the trunk, then the bark of the trunk was stripped clean. Some roots held the trunk, but the only word that seemed to fit the tree’s description was “raped.” You could measure the storm’s diameter driving along by observing the metal fence posts bent over at the ground. There were no more bushes or grass in the ditches. A giant rake had removed everything.
Ahead of the vortex, tornado warnings were advising people to get underground or to go to the very center of the house and cover themselves with mattresses and pillows. Many heeded the warnings and emerged alive from totally destroyed homes. Those in automobiles on roads in the tornado’s path stopped and tried to hide under the overpasses. Hundreds of individual stories have been told of people saved and sacrifices made. Babies were pulled from the arms of mothers to be found alive, caught in trees. Rescuers pulled people from under piles of debris. One witness recounted how her roof lifted off and every wall exploded in differing directions. As she looked up into the sky, she saw the interior of the tornado walls visible into the open sky and the awesome silence at the very center. At that moment, she was in the safest place to be in a tornado, the center of the vortex. Falling into the hands of God is a fearful thing; but, being in the hollow of God's hand is a very safe place to be. It truly was a miracle that only 44 people died. The storm was on the ground more than 70 miles. It went through 19 miles of Oklahoma City metro. Approximately 1500 homes were totally destroyed; 10,000 homes were damaged; 10,000 automobiles were damaged. Some vehicles could no longer be recognized by model and maker. You knew it was a vehicle because a wheel was sticking out of the tangled wreckage. Obviously, the vehicle had been bounced along the ground like a basketball.
Surveying the damage from the air was like trying to do battle damage assessment after a series of B-52's had dropped a string of bombs in a long line. The only thing missing was the craters. The exposed home foundations and slabs seemed to give the same effect. Simply put, it looked like a war zone. All that was left to see was the shocking degree of destruction.
Oklahoma City had previously undergone a very shocking event four years earlier – the bombing of the Federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. Emergency personnel had learned a lot from that mass casualty event. When the tornado approached and later hit, these personnel were already moving into action. The damage to people was considerably less as a result.
The weather forecasters were right in their predictions. The radar reported correctly. The storm spotters were there at the right place and time. The warnings were given in a timely manner. Those who were parallel to the storm watched and those in the path of the storm endured. Most concluded the same thing about the storm: it was an act of God.
God compares His future judgment upon the world to a whirling tempest. After seeing the Oklahoma City tornado and its effects, I now have a new perspective concerning God's coming judgment. Like the weather forecasters, God has sent us prophets and they have forecasted the coming great storm. Specific witnesses have testified to the strength of the approaching storm. Many are helping to get the warning out. The warning is clear — you need to take refuge in God! Many are heeding the warning, but this alone will not prepare you for the shock of these things. The judgment of God will be more devastating than the strongest wind on earth; His judgment will come right to the doorstep and house of every person. It is imperative that we be in parallel with God's judgment, not in conflict with it. It will be the ultimate act of God. The Day of the Lord, God's wrath, is likened unto us as a whirling tempest, a tornado. On the F scale, the Day of the Lord is off the scale.
An act of God doesn't fit into the average Christian's theology today. “How could God do such a thing? Surely our loving and gracious God does not do such things anymore,” some argue. They are right to a degree; their god doesn't do those kinds of things. The problem is that they have the wrong god. The God of the Bible, the God of creation says this:
The obvious answer to the prophet's question is Yes. The God of Heaven and Earth is a judge, and He judges the people on the earth.
But why you ask? Why would God send a killer tornado down on Oklahoma City for the whole nation and world to take notice? What is the message here? The answer, I believe, comes from the past. What happened shortly before the storm? What has been happening for some time now with the whole world watching?
In Littleton, Colorado, two young men armed with guns and bombs went on a killing spree in their own high school. The press reported that they were angry and retaliating against athletes and more popular students who had excluded them. This is not true. The truth is that they were there killing Christians. They systematically asked the people they killed if they believed in God and then martyred them for their faith. The press reported one of the stories about a young lady; the fact is that many witnesses said this was happening with all of them.
Is this an isolated situation?
Do you remember the school shooting in Paducca Springs, Kentucky? A single student (involved with the occult) came into the school, went to the school prayer meeting and started killing Christians. The press does not want us to know that Christians are being killed in this country. If it were reported that way, a cry would go up against anti-Christian thinking and bigotry.
Remember, it is fashionable in the press to be opposed to conservative Christians and their view point. Conservative Christians are the intolerable oppressors; they cause harm to others and restrict their civil liberties. Let's make sure that they are called the bad ones, not victims. The liberal secularists are the good guys and the religious conservatives are the bad guys. That is how the game is played today. So, any story about people killing Christians is wrong. It makes Christians sound like they are good guys who don't deserve what has happened to them. Let's just say they were athletes and popular kids. Let's say that the perpetrators were outcasts and not occultists and haters of God. This was what was happening in the days ahead of the tornado.
God knows the truth of what has happened. His calamities upon a city and its people is always related to misbehavior of that people. I believe God has an opinion about Christians being killed for being believers of Him. I believe God has judgment stored up for His enemies. Why then should God use Oklahoma City to be His message to the nation and its people? Oklahoma City is called the heartland of the nation from the previous bombing. It is geographically the very center of the country. It is where the cross-hairs center if you are taking aim against the people called the United States of America.
So what is God saying? I believe it has to do with truth and righteousness. I believe it has to do with murdering his people and the denial of that fact. I believe it has to do with His coming Day of the Lord and the blatant disregard of those warnings. I believe it has to do with the shock that we are all about to endure when the hand of God sweeps over our nation and the world. I believe it is about making the same mistakes of the past and as a people refusing to take refuge in Him. I believe it is about the judgment of God's whirling tempest coming upon us all. I believe it is about who is the real God and who is not.
Brethren, it is the last days. Judgment is coming. Do we understand this?
Ehud Barak, the new Prime Minister of Israel, will take the reigns of control in the summer of 1999 and lead Israel toward its final destiny. There are differing opinions as to what the name Ehud means. Those opinions range from “strong” to “I will give thanks or I will be praised.” Barak means “lightning or lightning flash.” On the meaning of his last name, “lightning” goes with a storm; therefore, Israel may be in for a stormy time ahead. Barak is the leader of the Labor party and now must form a coalition of his party with other political parties in the Knesset. He is hoping to develop a unity type of government involving Netanyahu's own political party. Netanyahu, himself, has stepped down as leader of his own party and is resigning from Israeli political life. According to Barak's initial statements and plans, he intends to put the peace process back on track and move forward. There are reports now emerging that a basic outline concerning Jerusalem has been agreed to between Barak and Arafat. The United States, Europe, and even the Palestinians are proclaiming Barak's victory in the elections to be a victory for the peace process. It is not so much that they like Barak; it is more that they disliked Netanyahu. The fact is that Barak is Israel's most decorated soldier and he is not likely to just roll over on every negotiation.
Even more disturbing than Barak's win and attitude toward land for peace, the Palestinians under Arafat's leadership have changed their basic strategy for the final status talks of Jerusalem. The final status talks are to reconvene after Barak's government is formed. The United States has pledged that the final status talks will be completed in one year. That pledge was made in early May. The reality is a deadline before March of 2000. The Palestinians have stated that the state of Palestine and the issue of Jerusalem must be completed before the Pope's visit to the Holy Land next March. The Palestinians want to declare their statehood in time for the world to declare the new millennium. Some reports are suggesting that November 15, 1999 may be the date for the actual declaration. Therefore, pressure is building for a conclusion to the Middle East Peace process this coming winter. Even President Clinton is putting pressure on the negotiations. Clinton is desperate to leave the White House with a “legacy.” He would like his legacy to be a problem solver of “Biblical proportions.”
For the last three years, Lion and Lamb Ministries has watched closely the political and religious events concerning Jerusalem to see if the stage is being set for the start of the Great Tribulation. We have striven to show that a future season of winter will bring about the key events that Yeshua warned would be the sign of the end of the age and His coming. We all have seen the very words of the prophets spoken in the peace process and have drawn attention to the end of the age. In each of the previous years, we have come closer, but it has not yet happened. Like birth pangs, rumors of a Jerusalem agreement with the Vatican's involvement have bubbled up each of the past three years. This year, like each of the previous three years, the possibility of convergence looms again. The possibility that the Jerusalem agreement previously negotiated with the Vatican is again being raised in the dialogue. Its implementation is imminent. What is possibly imminent? The basic Jerusalem agreement is to allow the Palestinians to set up governmental offices in East Jerusalem and have control over certain religious sites. The Vatican is to take oversight of the temple mount and other holy sites. One of the most important aspects of the Vatican oversight is that the Vatican agreement is slated to give a piece of the temple mount to Israel. This is one of the most important prerequisites for end time prophecy. Even as Jewish control of Jerusalem was essential to the end time prophetic scenario, so is the need for a Jewish presence on the temple mount; with it comes the cornerstone and the new altar being set up by the religious Jews. Once the altar is dedicated and begins its daily service (the morning and evening offerings), we will look for the stopping of that service during the season of winter (the actual sign spoken of by Yeshua). The day the altar service is stopped will be day one of 1,290 days of Great Tribulation. These are all events that can take place in a single season. These are all events that are likely to be seen if the Jerusalem agreement is fully implemented.
This summer, with Barak's government seated, a strong effort by all Middle East players will take effect to divide Jerusalem. The word “divide” may by semantically argued, the end result will be a Jerusalem with different parts. Israel, the Vatican, the United States, and the European Union have all weighed in for this battle. Arafat's new strategy has heightened the tensions in the Middle East negotiations. Instead of accepting the modern state of Israel and agreeing to some portion under the “land for peace” thinking, he has suddenly switched to something dramatically different! Arafat is now calling on the UN and the international community to return to UN Resolution 181 to negotiate Jerusalem. So what does that mean?
Resolution 181 was set in 1947 before Israel became a nation and was soundly rejected by the Arabs. By Arafat's use of Resolution 181, he is calling on the world to set aside the previous 51 years of history. He is calling for Israel to deny their own existence and the world to withdraw their recognition of Israel as a nation and put them on the same plane as the Palestinians are now. He believes this is the right and fair way to negotiate Jerusalem. It is an old negotiating trick called, “What is mine is mine and what is yours we will negotiate for.” Israel is ignoring Arafat's statements right now as nonsense. This may be simply a negotiating trick by Arafat. Ask for something outrageous first and negotiate down to the acceptable level. Even though the United States has said that negotiations are based on latter resolutions and is resisting the 181 argument, these are serious negotiations with a Holy God looking on. Even if Barak negotiates in good faith and the peace process moves forward, he will not dissolve the modern state of Israel nor will he “divide” Jerusalem. Therefore, a future impasse and necessary annulment of the agreement seems inevitable just as the prophet Isaiah has said (Isa 28:18). Truly, this future agreement is the “covenant with death” described by Isaiah to be canceled. Israel's unwillingness to roll over and die will inevitably bring all nations against Jerusalem as the prophets have said.
One of the more intriguing parts of Isaiah's prophecy is for the cornerstone to be set prior to the peace agreement annulment. Had the annulment and Palestinian statehood taken place last May 4 without the cornerstone, the event would have disproved in my mind the present peace process as being the prophesied peace process. Rescheduling the declaration of the Palestinian state and the annulment to the end of this year has lined up everything very nicely to the prophetic scenario. Barak's election will open the public dialogue for the Vatican's involvement with the temple mount. These are the steps needed to get Israel on the temple mount. With Israel on the temple mount, a cornerstone will be set and an altar built. This is the prophetic scenario we have been watching and waiting for in the previous three years. These are the prerequisites for the Abomination of Desolation.
Setting the prophetic scenario aside for the moment, let's review what we know is to happen early in the year 2,000.
Finally, If the previously negotiated elements of the Jerusalem agreement have been implemented (Israel on the temple mount), then the stage will be set this winter in Jerusalem for what the Bible calls “Jacob's trouble”, a time of distress that the world has never seen before lasting three and one half years, and what Yeshua called the “Great Tribulation.” Will Great Tribulation begin this next winter? I believe it will happen for sure some day, but we must watch and wait for the specific day. These six events scheduled for early 2,000 should be closely watched!
Each of the previous three years have had elements of these pieces and a growing sense of anticipation, but it simply did not happen. Netanyahu's policies (which I agreed with) blocked the Jerusalem negotiations due to Arab rancor for him. Had the anticipated events matching the prophecy simply gone away, then I would have concluded that a series of interesting coincidents had occurred, but that it was not the set of prophetic events signaling the end of the age. Instead, the world's plans and intentions for Jerusalem have not left us. With Barak's election, they are on a fast track for completion this winter. We are watching God's perfect timing.
Many years ago, I can remember praying to God and asking that He not set key events for the year 2,000. “It is too obvious and people won't believe it,” I thought. Well, here we are at the brink of the year 2,000 and things are lining up. If the year 2,000 is the beginning of the end and the start of the Great Tribulation, then we should look to this fall for the final prerequisites to take their place. That is, we should look for Israel to receive a part of the temple mount, a cornerstone to be set measuring the court of Israel, an altar to be built in it, and a dedication of that altar. If, and it is a very big if, the altar is operating on the temple mount this next winter (December 21, 1999 through March 21, 2000), we dare not be sleeping. The prophecy is clear. The cessation or stopping of that altar service near the Biblical year 6,000 is the sign of the end of the age and the coming of Yeshua. There will be 3 1/2 years more. That 3 1/2 year period is known as the Great Tribulation. The Messiah comes in the days immediately after the tribulation “on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
The Scripture also says that there will a great apostasy and falling away of faith concurrent with the Great Tribulation. Can you imagine how the average Christian will react to the altar service, the new millennium activities, Middle East politics, Y2k, the sun, and us crying out that the Great Tribulation has begun when the altar service is stopped? A lot of Christians and their leaders will reject the warnings and carry on like nothing is happening (everything is the same). It will be the great falling away of faith. Those who reject will assault and attack those crying out the warning. From my limited vantage point, the stage seems to be set, even now, based on the ignorance of the prophetic scenario. The average Christian does not know the sign spoken by Yeshua that signals the end of the age and His coming.
So what are we to do? Watch and wait is what we are commanded to do. We are also told to be hastening (preparing) for the coming Day of the Lord.
We have watched the leaders of Israel fulfill the meanings of their names from Shamir (the thorny hedge) and Rabin (the strong ones) and Peres (he who divides) to Netanyahu (the gift of our God). Now we have Barak (lightning). Doesn't Scripture say that Yeshua is to come as the lightning?
Keep the faith brethren and let none of these events in this year find you in unaware.
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