Foreshadow Now, ‘Season of the End Times’:

Blog note. Jesus indicated that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency, size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation period

… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11).
… And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)
… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken; (Luke 21:26)
… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2 Timothy 3:1)

Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor.

Coronavirus: Police in multiple US cities test positive, stirring fears of frontline spread

Hundreds of uniformed officers have tested positive in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Houston and Miami, among other cities

Mark Berman The Independent. March 29, 2020

Three Houston police officers were recently in what their chief called a “tussle with a suspect” who was displaying fever-like symptoms: a hallmark of the novel coronavirus.

“We immediately sent them home; they didn’t even go back to the station,” Chief Art Acevedo said in an interview. All three officers tested positive for the coronavirus.

The officers in Houston are part of a mounting toll across the country as police officers and other first responders are falling ill with the coronavirus. Departments are now grappling with mounting infections in their own ranks as they navigate an extraordinary public health emergency.

In New York, hundreds of uniformed officers have tested positive for the coronavirus. Infections have also been confirmed in departments in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, Miami Beach, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans and Philadelphia, among others, along with sheriff’s offices across the country.

“You have to remember, as police officers … we can’t walk around in biohazard suits,” Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan said in an interview. One of his officers has tested positive for the coronavirus. “We have to be able to get to our guns, our radios, our handcuffs, that type of stuff. There’s no way for a police officer to do their job and not potentially be exposed to the virus.”

Officers are still contracting the virus even as police in some major cities have had fewer calls to answer.

An analysis of reported crimes from more than a dozen cities – including the District of Columbia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta – found a notable decline in crime that started when people started being urged in mid-March to work from home and stay away from others.

Most cities saw a 10 to 20 per cent decrease in property crimes, the analysis found. Violent crimes have remained relatively flat overall, the data show, though police in some cities reported drops in some of those categories.

But officers continue to confront the virus, with departments nationwide quarantining waves of officers for possible exposure. Three Tampa officers were potentially exposed after giving CPR to a person they later learned was infected.

Some agencies are mourning officers and personnel who have died of the virus. Detroit police said a 38-year-old 911 operator died Monday and Captain Jonathan Parnell, a three-decade veteran of the department, died Tuesday. The Wayne County, Michigan, sheriff’s office said Donafay Collins, a 63-year-old commander, died on Wednesday.

The New York Police Department said Thursday that Dennis Dickson, a custodial staffer at police headquarters, was the department’s first death from the virus. The toll only grew after that. On Friday evening, the NYPD said another civilian employee – Giacomina Barr-Brown, who worked in a precinct roll call office – had become the second. Then, on Saturday, the department said Det. Cedric Dixon had died.

“We have lost three members of our family in a little over 48 hours,” Dermot Shea, the New York police commissioner, said Saturday. “As I stand here, I cannot begin to describe what we are feeling. We are hurting. We are crying. And we continue to fight.”

New York City has become the epicentre of the American coronavirus outbreak, with more than 29,000 people confirmed to be infected with the virus and 517 dead from it, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Some of the infected work for the NYPD.

More than 550 New York Police Department employees had tested positive for the coronavirus, more than double the number reported just two days earlier, Shea said, and more than 4,100 people from the uniformed part of the department were out sick. Police officials have said many of those testing positive were uniformed officers. Shea called the situation facing the department “deeply troubling”.

“You are on the front lines of this,” Shea said in a recorded message for officers.

Firefighters and paramedics nationwide have also been diagnosed with the coronavirus. The New York City Fire Department said that 235 of its people – including firefighters and civilians – had tested positive as of Saturday. In Kirkland, Washington, firefighters were quarantined after responding to calls at the Life Care Centre nursing home, where there was a deadly coronavirus cluster.

While many professions have adapted to stay-at-home orders and official advice to practice social distancing by having employees work from home, core parts of police work can only be done by heading outside and interacting with others. Police can’t scour a crime scene for shell casings over Zoom, nor can they provide first aid to someone in dire medical straits from an office. So departments have responded to the virus by rethinking key aspects of how they police their communities.

“It’s a unique thing to try to police in a social distancing world,” said Paul Pazen, the Denver police chief.

People who call 911 now get asked if they have a fever. Officers are cutting down on arrests and not responding in person to some calls as they try to avoid possible exposure to the deadly virus.

Acevedo said people who call his department now are now asked whether anyone is showing any symptoms of illness, including a cough or fever. Officers going to a scene where a person might have those symptoms will go in protective gear, Acevedo said, though the department is “running out of everything.”

Police in Oklahoma City is asking 911 callers about their health before responding and requesting that, when possible, people step outside when officers show up. In Philadelphia, police are detaining people charged with some nonviolent offences only for paperwork and planning to arrest them later. Chicago police said they are seeing less activity overall, with car and pedestrian stops down 40 to 60 per cent, and are encouraging officers to minimise public contact.

Dallas police said they will keep responding in person to crimes including assaults, sexual assaults and robberies but will not physically show up for graffiti, shoplifting or lost property, among other things. Police in Tampa, Nashville, Oklahoma City and Charleston, South Carolina, say they are taking more reports over the phone rather than in person.

Other departments have responded by shutting their doors when possible. Memphis police closed their stations to the public, while Charleston police did the same with the lobby of their headquarters

Police also say they are trying to avoid bringing additional people into jails – which experts warn are dangerously susceptible to disease outbreaks – if possible.

Police officials stress that they are still patrolling communities and responding to calls and serious crimes. Pazen said his officers have “been able to address some pretty high-level crimes but do it in a safe way”, including keeping distances when possible and wearing protective equipment.

But they are worried about what happens the longer people stay at home, uncharted territory in its scope and severity.

“What’s kept me up at night as chief for many years is the possibility of a pandemic,” said Acevedo, the Houston police chief. “Because in law enforcement, we’re used to dealing with human behaviour, we’re not used to dealing with Mother Nature and a virus and medical issues.”

The pandemic is also raising questions about how departments can operate longer-term if officers keep contracting the virus and calling in sick, said Eugene O’Donnell, a former New York police officer who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

“The whole notion of policing in a crisis is that you can turn to them and hand them the ball,” O’Donnell said. “But they are human institutions – people worry about their families, worry about their own health. If this is a prolonged issue and we’re just at the bottom of the curve that’s going to go up, we’ll have to see whether it can be sustained over the long haul.”

Officials said it is too soon to know if the drops in crime will continue. In New York, major felony crimes declined by 17 per cent for the week ending Sunday, police said. In Seattle, where the virus first took root in the United States, officials say the number of 911 calls has dropped in recent weeks. Chicago police had reported several days of decreased activity before 14 people were injured in shootings Wednesday night, a department spokesman said.

In the week after California residents were ordered to shelter in place March 20, San Jose saw violent crime drop nearly 44 per cent from a year earlier and property crime fall 36 per cent, said Eddie Garcia, the city’s police chief.

“But we’re in the first quarter of the football game,” Garcia said. “I’m not doing a touchdown dance just because our first quarter went well.”

Police and experts fear certain crimes – including domestic violence and child abuse – will surge during this period of economic and existential uncertainty.

The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) is experiencing a “noticeable increase in visitors voicing fears about their safety during this pandemic,” Heather Drevna, the group’s vice president of communications, said in a statement.

Pazen, the Denver police chief, said authorities were similarly worried about this because of the sheer number of people.

“Now we’re putting young people, multiple generations in the same household, in proximity with a lot of stress,” Pazen said. “We’re concerned about that.”

After the first Tampa officer tested positive this week, Dugan, the police chief, told reporters at a briefing he is worried about the health and safety of his officers and the general public.

“My biggest concern is, it’s gotten real,” he said. “And it’s only going to get worse.”

(Night Watchman Note: What will happen when millions of Christians suddenly ‘disappear’ in the ‘twinkling of an eye”??? Those who may be first-responders, doctors, nurses, support staff, policemen, firefighters, homeless volunteers, those in the red cross or other emergency aid and relief organizations, in the national guard or military, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. You get the picture.)

Jesus Christ’s Offer of Salvation:

The ABCs of Salvation through Jesus Christ (the Lamb)

A. Admit/Acknowledge/Accept that you are sinner. Ask God’s forgiveness and repent of your sins.

. . . “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).

. . . “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10).

. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).

B. Believe Jesus is Lord. Believe that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be; that He was both fully God and fully man and that we are saved through His death, burial, and resurrection. Put your trust in Him as your only hope of salvation. Become a son or daughter of God by receiving Christ.

. . . “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:15-17). For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).

C. Call upon His name, Confess with your heart and with your lips that Jesus is your Lord and Savior.

. . . “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10).

. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (John 1:8-10).

. . . “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (John 2:2).

. . . “In this was manifested the love of god toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:9, 14-15).

. . . “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10).

. . . “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).

. . . “Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).

. . . “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” (Romans 1:16).

. . . “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts: 4:12).

. . . “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).

. . . “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

. . . “But as many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12).

True Church / Bride of Christ Spared from God’s Wrath:

 Romans 5:8-10. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Romans 12:19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 1:10. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 5:9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 8:35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Jeremiah 30:7. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.

Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.