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.
Revelation 6:7-8 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
(‘fourth part’ = 25% = *7.7 billion x .25 = 1.93 billion people) *estimated earth population as of March 2020.
‘Fearful Sights,’ Increasing Fires and Floods in ‘Diverse Places’; About 600 (6) wildfires have burned a million acres in California in a week. Lightning may soon set even more blazes.
Grace Hauck Joel Shannon USA TODAY August 22, 2020
Hundreds of wildfires are burning in California, nearly one million acres have been torched in a week, and more critical fire weather conditions are being forecast for the region.
Since thousands of lightning strikes began hitting the state on Aug. 15, firefighters have responded to 585 wildfires, according to the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire. Two fire complexes have grown to be the second and third largest wildfires in California history.
The fires have torched nearly 700 homes and other structures; tens of thousands of people have evacuated; ancient redwood trees have been charred and the Giant Sequoia National Monument is located near one of the blazes.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday confirmed five deaths have associated with the fires. Separately, a Pacific Gas & Electric utility worker was found dead Wednesday in a vehicle in the Vacaville area.
More than 13,700 firefighters were on the scene, and many of the fires were continuing to grow Saturday, said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director for Cal Fire.
Newsom on Saturday announced that the White House had granted the state’s request for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration – that’s despite President Donald Trump publicly chiding California over the wildfires earlier this week.
Many of the blazes were sparked by an unprecedented lightning siege of nearly 12,000 strikes over a three-day period.
The forecast for coming days has officials worried lightning may set even more fires.
Thunderstorm systems are expected to impact portions of Northern California starting early Sunday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue fire weather watches and red flag warnings, Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said Saturday afternoon.
Of particular concern: The storms could produce more dry lightning strikes, which occur without significant rainfall and often with high winds.
“The worst is not behind us,” Cal Fire Chief Thom Porter tweeted Saturday, referencing lightning activity that is expected across the state.
California fires:This is how a lightning storm can start a wildfire
Here’s what we know.
Map: How many fires are burning in California right now?
Hundreds of wildfires were burning as of Saturday, with three major fire complexes – encompassing dozens of fires – carving their way through forest, canyon country and rural areas in northern and central California.
A group of fires in Napa Valley, known as the L.N.U. Lightning Complex, was spreading through Napa, Sonoma, Lake, Yolo and Stanislaus counties. The fire has burned more than 490 square miles and is 15% contained, according to Cal Fire.
East of Silicon Valley, the S.C.U. Lightning Complex was burning in Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties. The fire has burned more than 450 square miles and is 10% contained.
The L.N.U. and S.C.U. fire complexes grew to be the state’s second and third largest wildfires ever on Saturday, trailing the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire, which burned more than 700 square miles, according to Cal Fire.
Farther west, a third complex – the C.Z.U. Lightning Complex in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties – has burned about 100 square miles and is 5% contained.
“We have wildfires burning … the size of the state of Rhode Island. The size of the state of Rhode Island,” U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday. “It’s very, very sad. … All of us salute our firefighters.”
Hundreds of trees burn at Big Basin Redwoods State Park
California’s oldest state park, Big Basin Redwoods, has been damaged by the fires, which have charred hundreds of massive ancient coast redwoods – some more than 1,000 years old.
The fires have also damaged the park’s headquarters, historic core and campgrounds, according to the California Department of Parks and Recreation. All campers and staff had been evacuated.
Dozens of other state parks, beaches and nature reserves have also been closed.
Yosemite National Park remains open, but multiple park gateway communities are under wildfire evacuation orders.
Where will the West’s next deadly wildfire strike? The risks are everywhere
How lightning storms started California wildfires
Many of the fires were caused by a mass of lightning strikes last week – sparks that lit a tinder box of vegetation left dry and crunchy by months of persistent heat and low humidity. Read more about how those conditions evolved here.
“We’ve definitely had lightning complex fires before,” said Rick Carhart, Cal Fire public information officer for Butte County. “The scope of this one, just the fact it’s so many fires in such a large area of the state … is an anomaly.”
This particular surge of lightning-caused fires has been one of the most noteworthy in a decade, said Scott Rowe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Newsom on Friday attributed the phenomenon to climate change.
“These lightning strikes, this unprecedented heat dome, these world record temperatures, unprecedented in human history – we’re experiencing more and more of that because of climate change, and as a consequence, these fires are more ferocious, and they’re moving at much more rapid speeds,” Newsom said.
The fire season in California and across the West is starting earlier and ending later each year, and climate change is considered a key driver of this trend, according to Cal Fire.
“Warmer spring and summer temperatures, reduced snowpack, and earlier spring snowmelt create longer and more intense dry seasons that increase moisture stress on vegetation and make forests more susceptible to severe wildfire,” the departments says on its website.
These factors have lengthened the fire season by about 75 days across the Sierra Nevada, according to Cal Fire, which predicts that, in Northern California, “above-normal large fire potential” will persist through October. In Southern California, the department predicts there will be an above-normal large fire potential in October and November.
Wildfires in Colorado, across western states
Fires were also burning in Colorado, Utah, Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Wyoming, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group on Saturday.
“The heat dome that we experienced over the course of last week has not only impacted the state of California – it’s impacted the entire western United States,” Newsom said. “As a consequence of that, our mutual aid that goes outside the state of California has also been stretched.”
In Arizona, three lightning-caused wildfires forced the evacuation of multiple communities on Saturday. The Salt, Gin and Griffin fires burned a combined 50 square miles. The fires each remained uncontained.
In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis on Friday, activated the Colorado National Guard to assist the State Emergency Operations Center and incident commanders fighting wildfires. Voluntary evacuations were underway in parts of the state.
What is the air quality and why don’t cloth face masks help?
Smoke from the fires is making the air quality in parts of California some of the worst in the world. A blanket of smoke – visible from satellite images – is covering parts of California, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has listed air quality in areas across the state as “very unhealthy.”
And people in the area might not be able to smell the dangerous pollutants in the air.
Air quality experts measure the amount of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) in the air. According to the EPA, those particles come from a variety of sources, including fires. Smoke from fires can send large amounts of PM 2.5 into the air and over large areas.
“Whenever things burn there’s a mixture of gases and particles,” said University of California, San Francisco pulmonologist Dr. John Balmes, an expert on the respiratory and cardiovascular effects of air pollutants. “When you smell smoke, you are smelling the gases in the air, not PM 2.5. … They go hand-in-hand near the fire source, but the particulates travel in the upper atmosphere.”
It’s possible to have bad air — air high in PM 2.5 — without smelling gases.
Your coronavirus mask may not protect you, unless you have a mask designed to filter PM 2.5, like an N-95. Those masks are scarce worldwide because of the pandemic. What residents really need are respirators.
Contributing: Doyle Rice, Elinor Aspegren, Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Joel Shannon, USA TODAY; Matt Brannon, Redding Record Searchlight; Brett McGinness and Amy Alonzo, Reno Gazette Journal; Kristin Scharkey, Palm Springs Desert Sun
In His Service,
Night Watchman
Paul Rolland
Night Watchman Ministries
Make Your Decision for Christ NOW!!!!!!! Time is Up!!!!!!!
Jesus Christ’s Offer of Salvation:
The ABCs of Salvation through Jesus Christ (the Lamb)
- Admit/Acknowledge/Accep
- t 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.
Categories: Extreme Wildfires Update