| Welcome to The-Christians-Forum.com. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Commenting on World Events | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 28 2014, 05:13 AM (500 Views) | |
| Silver | Jun 28 2014, 05:13 AM Post #1 |
|
Assistant Admin
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
June 23, 2014 Hungry Red Dragon Most people living today have no idea that for decades there has been an amazing balance between our soaring global population and food production. As the planet became more crowded, scientists and researchers have done wonders to increase the supply of food. In the 1930s, a farmer could produce 20 bushels of corn from an acre of land. Today, the average farmer can produce 160 bushels of corn from the same acre. During this same time period the yield for wheat has gone from 10 to 40 bushels per acre. War and political unrest have created the occasional bottleneck in distribution, but for the most part, it has been several centuries since the global population was made to starve because of an inability to produce enough food. I think God’s grace is a key reason why humanity has managed to keep their bellies full for so long. In recent years there have been signs that the Lord’s favor may be starting to waver. Droughts and floods have become a regular occurrence causing our grain reserves to drop to dangerously low levels. Also, a growing number of nations are unable to produce enough food to feed their own people. China is one of the nations falling behind each year. Nie Zhenbang, the former director of the Chinese State Grain Administration, recently said that despite 2013 being a record year for Chinese grain production, China will need to import tons of food. “Although the number is huge,” said Zhenbang, “it still could not satisfy domestic consumer demand. In recent years, China’s food imports have been increasing. Agricultural product imports are roughly equivalent to the productive capacity of 47 million hectares of planted areas. A land area of 47 million hectare is181,468 square miles. To put this number in context, it is a little over the size of the entire state of California. Since a large part of the Golden State has unproductive desert or mountain areas, this just shows how massive China’s need for food has become. The average farmer can produce 7.6 metric tons of grain per acre. Each year, China’s growing grain demand will tie up 12,000 additional square miles of farmland. With urbanization gobbling up large tracks of land, it is more likely that we will see a net decrease in farmland in the coming years. China’s food production problem is largely driven by a massive deficiency of freshwater. Chief Economist, Qian Keming, of China’s Agriculture Ministry said, “Fresh water resources are only 2100 cubic meters per capita, which is only 28% of the world’s average level.” He also said, “The shortage of [water for agricultural irrigation] each year is about 30 billion cubic meters. China imported about 148.6 billion cubic meters of water in 2013, which was equivalent to 38% of China’s agricultural water.” The increase in China’s population is just part of the problem. Another factor is the growing affluence of the average Chinese citizen. A 2011 study authored by the University of Minnesota and UC Santa Barbara shows “a simple and temporally consistent global relationship between per capita GDP and per capita demand for crop calories or protein.” Simply put, as a nation becomes more industrialized, its citizens consume more food. Taiwan, for example, increased per capita meat consumption from just 28.6 pounds annually in 1951, to 145.5 pounds today. China’s hunger for meat has been growing rapidly. So much so, that it recently purchased Smithfield Foods, one of America’s largest pork producers. China has a ravenous appetite for a host of commodities. A couple of weeks ago I pointed out how much its need for oil has grown. In 1980, Chinese oil consumption was at 2 million barrels per day (bpd). Today, it consumes over 10 million bpd. By 2020, its daily usage is expected to rise to the 18 million bpd. The Bible predicts that China will have a key role to play in the latter part of the Tribulation. The need for resources may be a key reason why it will send an army of some 200 million strong into the Middle East. “Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand (200 million): and I heard the number of them” (Revelation 9:14-16). --Todd -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prince of Persia Provocation? It is staggering to consider. We are at a moment in human history that gives every signal of being the time when the Lord will intervene catastrophically into the sordid, debauched affairs of rebellious mankind. We chronicle those signals in detail day by day here at Rapture Ready. It takes deliberate obstinacy to deny that this generation fits that which Peter described: But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray. (2 Peter 2:12-15a) Seems to me that to societal and cultural descent into end-times-level lasciviousness has just been added a troubling although fascinating, geopolitically profound factor of prophetic significance. I refer to the most recent eruption of turbulence right smack in the center of the region on planet earth where humankind began and where the Bible says things will again be centered at the very end of the Age of Grace. The "cradle of civilization" is sobriquet for Mesopotamia. This area that surrounds the Euphrates-Tigris rivers spawned the world’s population in the geographical sense. (Unless one is an evolutionist, of course. But, even many holding this point of view admit that Mesopotamia was the place major civilized enclaves had their genesis.) That region has been the epicenter, as Joel Rosenberg would call it, of the ongoing battle on earth of good vs evil–God vs Satan. We learn of that ongoing conflict in a major episode, as recorded by Daniel the prophet, who was seeking answers from the Lord about his people, Israel, and what would be their fate. And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days. (Daniel 10:10-13) Daniel’s angel-visitor had just gone through a titanic battle that required the assistance of the archangel Michael to overcome. An angel of great power called “the Prince of Persia” didn’t want God’s messenger to get through with the prophetic message. That same powerful angel no doubt has sway over the region we know today as Iran and Iraq, formerly called Persia and Babylon. That prince apparently rules a territory beneath which resides in a holding cell of sorts called “the abyss” evil spiritual entities of enormous significance for the Tribulation period–the last seven years of human history leading up to Christ’s Second Advent. We read of these minions that await their time to be loosed upon a judgment-deserving world, I believe, in Revelation chapters 9 and 16. Presently, the Prince of Persia seems to be stirring Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to mischief that could ignite the whole region in a conflagration of epic proportion. The leader of the ISIS forces that are murdering and subjecting to Sharia Islamic law all within the territories they take has replaced Osama bin Laden as the most dangerous man in the world, according to the pundits. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was released from Iraq’s largest detention camp only to go straight to the camp of the Islamist haters of America and Israel. He now has America and the world in the grip of satanically spawned confusion as to what to do. His actions show with superb, demonstrative clarity the foolishness of the decision by President Obama to release the five prisoners in exchange for the soldier who deserted his post and was subsequently held by the terrorists of which he wanted to become a part. Soon, they, too, will be leaders of forces bent on destroying America and Israel. All attention is more and more again turned to that specific geographic area of the world where it all began. The prophet Zechariah foretold that such would be the case at the time just before human history is consummated. Zechariah told that he was given a vision of a cauldron-like container that represented end-times evil on a worldwide scale. He prophesied, saying about the one giving the vision to him: And he said, this is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base. (Zechariah 5:8-11) I am of the opinion that we have been watching that end-times base of evil being set in that region God’s Word calls “Shinar,” particularly since the first Gulf War–Desert Storm. The Prince of Persia, I think, is provoking the evil within Islam–in concert with all other evil in the world— to push all of mankind toward making a total break with their Creator. Armageddon will be the first result, but, thankfully, the return of Jesus Christ to put an end to the madness will be the ultimate outcome. Terry |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
![]() Our users say it best: "Zetaboards is the best forum service I have ever used." Learn More · Sign-up Now |
|
| « Previous Topic · Bible Prophecy · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z3.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)




6:23 PM Jul 10