Gloom and doom,prophecy and hope

A new report issued by the German-based Energy Watch Group suggests all the global warming alarmists can stop worrying about the damage being done to the climate by fossil fuel emissions.Global warming alarmists predict that 50 years from now, fossil fuel emissions produced by human civilization will have catastrophic consequences on the weather. Well, according to the German group, in 50 years, we'll have run out of fossil fuels anyway. It says that global oil production peaked in 2006 – much earlier than most experts had expected. The report predicts that production will now fall by 7 percent a year and that by 2050, there won't be enough left for it to be a factor.It's interesting, in a morbid sort of way, how there are, for this generation, no positive forecasts. Nobody is looking to the future with hope, despite the efforts of modern politicians to stir us with hopeful quotations from leaders of bygone generations.Fifty years ago, futurists were talking about flying cars, mega-cities, an end to disease and poverty and the prospects for world peace. The only bump in the road for them was the negligible risk that the Soviets would commit national suicide by launching a nuclear war.Barring that, the future was looking pretty rosy.Here is the consensus outlook for mankind's foreseeable future, 50 years later.According to the CIA, FBI and Defense Department, it is a question of "when" and not "if" America will suffer a catastrophic attack by terrorists using weapons of mass destruction.That's assuming the Middle East doesn't spark a world war involving weapons of mass destruction that draws Russia and America into open conflict.Surviving that, according to Al Gore, the catastrophic climate changes that threaten human civilization are neither an "if" nor a "when." Gore says it is a scientific certainty, and that it will happen in the next 50 years.(Gore's weather forecast won him an Emmy, an Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize, so don't question his science.)According to NASA, if the weather doesn't get us, a catastrophic asteroid strike will. A conference on "planetary defense" was convened last March in Washington to coincide with the release of a NASA report entitled, ""Near-Earth Object Survey and Deflection Analysis of Alternatives. "There hasn't been such a killer asteroid strike in all recorded human history, but that's the point, say those charged with protecting the earth from NEOs. Smaller, continent-shatterin g asteroid strikes hit every 5,000 years or so."So," they argue, as they peer into space telescopes between rounds pacing back and forth, "we're long overdue."Their competitive pacing partners at the Pentagon, CIA, the U.N. and the Al Gore International Headquarters for Saving the Planet duly echo the same mantra of, "it isn't a matter of 'if,' but 'when.'"But the German energy group's forecast gives us just 42 years – they say they are sure of both "if" AND "when" – and their forecast predicts a complete "meltdown of society" as supplies dwindle and prices rise, well before we've run completely out of oil.That's the secular futurist forecast for mankind for the 21st century.Here's the Bible's forecast for the generation that would see the conclusion of the Church Age, the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation Period.Jesus said the last generation would witness unprecedented increases in earthquakes, famines, wars and pestilences. He warned, "On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea."Jesus didn't say that there actually would be a threat of catastrophic climate change, or of cosmic extinction by a random killer asteroid, but rather, He warned of the fear of them.He said those cosmic and natural signs would be accompanied by a global sense of panic at our helplessness in the face of such impending catastrophe."Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken," is how the NIV renders Luke 21:25-26.But the same Jesus Who so accurately pre-empted the secular futurists by almost 2,000 years said that, for those that place their trust in Him, what appears to be gloom and doom and catastrophe and chaos is actually good news, because, He said, "When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:28 NIV).If you have a relationship with Jesus, then the time for welcoming Him is fast approaching. If you don't, then for you, the time to get prepared is quickly running out.
By Hal Lindsey

As in the days of Noah....