Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.
Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door.
Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
Jesus indicated that one (of many) signs of the end times or the end of the age grace would be that love for one another would grow cold. Matthew 24:12, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” This can be interpreted that lawlessness and violence shall abound, including at the civil level.
Five (5); Lawlessness, Violence, Protest, Rebellion and Anarchy
Luke 21:25 ‘Distress of Nations…’
Distress of Nations: Myanmar
Myanmar’s Military Didn’t Just Overthrow Aung San Suu Kyi’s Government. It’s Cracking Down on All Forms of Dissent
Emily Fishbein Updated Tue, February 2, 2021, 5:30 AM
Soldiers sit inside a military truck outside a Hindu temple in Yangon on Feb. 2, 2021, as Myanmar’s generals appeared in firm control a day after a coup that saw the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi overthrown. Credit – STR/AFP/Getty Images
Just before 5 a.m. Monday, three officers from Myanmar’s national police force showed up at Po Po’s home in Yangon. The officers, two of whom carried rifles, asked for her husband Min Thway Thit, a former leader of a prominent dissident student union. “They said they wanted to ask some questions,” says Po Po. “I asked whether they had a search warrant to enter his room, and they told me it wasn’t necessary.”
Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, staged a coup against the democratically-elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday. She and more than 40 government officials from her National League for Democracy were arrested and the military declared a yearlong state of emergency under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
The military did not stop at arresting politicians associated with the ruling government, however: Min Thway Thit is one of 16 members of civil society, including prominent dissident activists, writers, a musician, a filmmaker and two monks, who were also detained, according to a list compiled by U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia.
Read more: How Myanmar’s Fragile Push for Democracy Collapsed in a Military Coup
Po Po says she doesn’t know where police took her husband, and she has not heard from him since police took him away. “They didn’t tell me anything about why [my husband] was arrested,” she says. “They told me they had some questions to ask him, and they said that I should prepare some clothes for him and other personal items.”
For many activists and journalists, these arrests were a sign that the coup went beyond unseating Aung San Suu Kyi and her party—it is an attempt to crush the fragile political liberalization that the military junta itself had opened the door to following its oppressive rule from 1962 to 2011.
Activists living in fear
After Aung San Suu Kyi was released from 15 years of house arrest in 2010, young activists pushed to expand freedom of expression and fought to improve civil rights and the rule of law, hoping to move the country on from the decades of censorship and arbitrary detention enforced by the military. Now, they fear what comes next.
Thet Swe Win, an activist who works to promote peace and interfaith harmony, says that he and most fellow activists in Yangon have left their homes and gone into hiding. “This is a really threatening situation for human rights defenders and all political activists. We will be the first targets,” he says.
Others have already ended their work, at least temporarily. “I resigned from my position, since the work I am involved in is sensitive from the perspective of the military,” says a civil society worker advocating on human rights issues in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State. He spoke to TIME on the condition of anonymity, fearing arrest. “We are like birds in a cage; anyone can be arrested….anything can happen under this military regime.”
The military’s seizure of power came just hours before parliament was set to convene for the first time since national elections in November. Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party won by a wide margin, but the military has repeatedly alleged voter irregularities and contested the results—even though international observers have said the election was without major irregularities.
Bo Kyi, Joint Secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights organization based in Yangon and Thailand that was founded by former political prisoners, says that it is the “military’s nature” to restrict civil society and the media. “Later [the military] will target civil society and impose more restrictions. We cannot expect much from them regarding respecting human rights and the rule of law.”
Media workers are also concerned. “I am really worried about freedom of expression, because it will be the first thing the military will attack,” says a Yangon-based filmmaker who spoke to TIME on the condition of anonymity because she feared arrest. Some of her friends, she says, have moved to undisclosed locations for their safety, while she had lost contact with others.
Hours after the coup, a photojournalist was beaten up in downtown Yangon while he was filming a pro-military celebration.
A freelance journalist who works under the pseudonym Cape Diamond tells TIME from the capital Nay Pyi Taw on Tuesday that he was concerned for the safety of journalists working in the field. “It will be a big loss for all of us if journalists don’t continue their reporting due to fear of action against them,” he said. “I am afraid journalists might censor themselves.”
Myanmar’s flawed political transition
Aung San Suu Kyi became a global human rights icon following pro-democracy uprisings in 1988, but her reputation fell internationally when she defended military atrocities committed against the mostly-Muslim Rohingya population of Rakhine State—which United Nations investigators say were carried out with “genocidal intent.” Although the majority of people in Myanmar are fiercely loyal to her—her party won 80% of the popular vote in November, with many seeing her as the antidote to military rule—some activists have protested the erosion of civil liberties and human rights during her term.
As of December, there were more than 600 political prisoners across the country, including 42 serving prison sentences, 196 awaiting trial in jail, and 363 awaiting trial outside. Although the NLD had vowed in 2016 to formally define the term political prisoner and refrain from arresting anyone for political activities, it did not deliver on these promises, and itself filed more than 250 lawsuits against those who criticized it.
The government also failed to hold the military accountable for systematic violence against civilians from ethnic minorities, including the Rohingya. Since June 2019, the government also imposed the world’s longest internet restrictions over areas of Rakhine and Chin States.
“We have already been facing ongoing human rights violations, and now we will continue to face them,” says Thinzar Shunlei Yi, one of the country’s leading youth activists and the host of a TV youth dialogue series. “Human rights defenders were always targeted and activists arrested. The group who arrests them will change, but the arrested people will remain the same.”
What comes next?
Thinzar Shunlei Yi hopes the coup would draw attention to the flawed military-drafted 2008 constitution that enshrines the military’s dominant role in Myanmar’s politics. The constitution gives unelected members of the military 25% of seats in national and state legislatures, making amendments impossible without military support. It also mandates that the Commander-in-Chief appoints key ministerial positions, and allows the military to take over in times of emergency. Although the NLD government had made constitutional reform one of its key campaign promises in 2015, it was unsuccessful at pushing through meaningful results.
As of Tuesday, streets remained quiet, while activists told TIME they were assessing the situation carefully. On Tuesday afternoon, a group of youth activists known as the Yangon Youth Network released a statement announcing the launch of a civil disobedience campaign in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar’s two largest cities. Youth activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi tells TIME it will be a “non-cooperation and civil disobedience campaign launched by youth in Mandalay and Yangon to attack the military junta nonviolently.” It remains to be seen, however, whether the kind of large scale protests seen in 1988 and 2007 will follow.
Many activists interviewed by TIME issued a plea for solidarity from the international community, and swift actions to condemn the coup and punish the perpetrators.
“We need support, including emotional support, because the situation is really devastating. For us, the younger generation, it is the first time [to experience a coup]…It is shocking,” says the Yangon-based filmmaker.
Ye Wai Phyo Aung, founder and research manager with the freedom of expression group Athan, said he is determined to push forward as an activist. “I am still hoping for democracy, freedom and human rights,” he said. “I will not give up in the struggle. We must believe in ourselves that we can overcome this hardship.”
Originally published Tue, February 2, 2021, 4:57 AM
Seven (7) References to ‘BE WATCHING or WATCHFUL.’
Matthew 24:42; Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Matthew 25:13; Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Mark 13:35; Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning.
Luke 21:36; Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man
Luke 12:37-39; Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
1 Thessalonians 5:2-4; For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. (Be Watching).
John 13:19 Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.
John 14:29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
Luke 21:31 So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
Mark 13:29 So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.
Luke 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
Revelation 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
‘Increasing Like Labor Pains.’ ‘Fearful Sights.’ ‘Perilous Times.’ ‘Men’s hearts failing with fear.’ Great Convergence of Signs.’ REDEMPTION IMMINENT.
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)
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.
Categories: Update of Lawlessness and Violence