Sound The Midnight Cry

“Statistics and Scales”

Someone once said, “The lottery is a tax on people that don’t understand statistics.” You know the part that says the odds in winning are 1 in 152 million!

Statistics, by definition is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. If you understand the conclusion derived from the given data, statistics can draw us a picture of the situation one is trying to understand. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Pictures are good; they help some of us understand what the person is trying to convey in words. A good example of that is when you are trying to put together something based solely on the words in an assembly manual. I think people that create instruction manuals take a course in “How to confuse the customer so that they will pay for the item to be assembled.”

More than a billion people living on this earth today do so on a dollar a day or less, according to the latest UN poverty statistics. They qualify as ‘poor’ whereas those persons living on $2 a day are classed as ‘middling’ poor.

In America, the official ‘poverty threshold’ for a single American, on average, is $10,400 per year, or $28.00 per day. As to the American “middle class” -- the American version of the ‘middling poor’ are those with incomes ranging from $25,000 to $70,000 per year.

Pulling it all together, here is the overall big picture as it stands today. The population of the earth is roughly 6.6 billion people. To be poor among the billion richest is to be at least 28 times richer than the standard for poverty among the billion poorest.

Let me draw a picture for you: At last check, based on Microsoft’s current stock price, Bill Gates was worth $26 billion – that does not include the rest of his vast empire. If Bill Gates wealth were converted to one dollar bills laid end to end, they would stretch from New York to Seattle and back-- 431 times! If you could stack them together in a single stack, Bill Gates’ personal wealth would reach 1,757 miles high and would weigh almost 27 tons!

In the Apostle John’s vision of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the third horseman on the black horse holds in his hand a pair of balances. Revelation 6:6 says, “A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see you do not hurt the oil and the wine.”

He represents famine, but he also represents income distribution as it will exist in the last days. A measure of wheat or three measures of barley represent a day’s rations. A penny represents a day’s wages. The ‘oil and wine’ were items of luxury, representing great wealth.

With the days headlines filled with the rising costs of food; riots in nations because increasing food prices; rationing of rice, flour and other basic necessities [even Walmart, Costco and other retailers in the U.S. started limiting purchases this past week], the economic dynamics necessary for the Rider on the Black Horse to mount up and begin his ride are already well entrenched.

So the next time you want to complain at the cost of food items, remember, it only points to something greater on the horizon and it’s not another price increase—it’s the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And that’s a picture that I can’t wait to see!

“6,666,666,666?”

“6,666,666,666?” Each week, I try to point out different world events that are taking place that have or could have implications in the light of biblical prophecy. The Bible is written to give us understanding of things past, present and to come.

This week, a number of interesting items popped up on the radar screen this week and I want to simply pass them along for you to ponder.

According to official population statistics, the world population is expected to reach 6,666,666,666 sometime between now and May 10, 2008, or within 23 days from now [April 17th, 2008]

It is extremely noteworthy that the very verse in the Bible that describes food shortages during the Tribulation is in the 66th book, 6th chapter, and 6th verse (Revelation 6:6).

Especially noteworthy: Just today, as we approach 6,666,666,666 people, there is a newspaper article from the April 17th Chicago Tribune with a blaring headline saying: "GLOBAL CRISIS GROWS AS FOOD PRICES SOAR" with the sub-headline saying "What's considered largely an irritation in the U.S. threatens worldwide social upheaval as hunger strains poor nations."

The article says, “Worldwide, food prices have soared 45 percent over the past year as surging oil prices make growing and transporting food more expensive and as economic growth in emerging giants such as China and India leads to rising demand for food, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization…In richer developed nations, where people spend an average of 10 to 15 percent of their disposable income on food, price hikes have been a growing irritation. But in the developing world, where most poor people spend at least half of their income to eat, rising costs threaten to create major social unrest….”

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, in a speech this month stated, “Thirty-three countries around the world are at risk of social upheaval as a result of acute increases in food and energy prices”. In countries where buying food requires half to three-quarters of a poor person's income, "there is no margin for survival," he warned.

The April 17th edition of the International Herald Tribune reported that the drought in Australia has forced the mothballing of a rice mill that used to process enough rice to feed 20 million people. Several other countries have put a stop on rice exports to try and restrain the rising domestic prices.

While food shortages may be limited in scope, social upheaval in one part of the world can affect the whole world. A U.N. Peacekeeper was killed when food riots in Haiti broke out this past week due to 50-100 percent increases in food items, where the average citizen only makes $2 a day.

Bible scholars believe Revelation 6 describes the beginning of the Tribulation. Isn't it interesting that today [April 17] a worldwide news item describes the growing food crisis [mentioned in 66:6:6] and within days the world population reaches 6,666,666,666! Coincidence? I can’t say for sure, but if they are anything, they are beginning of “birthing pains.” [1 Thessalonians 5:3]

If we are near the beginning of the Tribulation, then Jesus and the catching away [rapture] of His people must literally be at the door! The question is, “Are you ready?”

Update: Someone pointed out to me a fascinating addition to this event:

May 10, 2008 will fall on 5 Iyyar on the Hebrew calendar -- or exactly 60 years to the day after Israel came into being on 5 Iyyar 1948.

The date 5 Iyyar 1948 is one of the most important dates in all human history -- the very date Israel was reborn according to many ancient prophecies, starting God's end-time clock ticking. Now we learn that the date in 2008 is the very day the world population is projected to be 6,666,666,666. I find that amazing!

Treasure Hunt

For the diehard treasure hunter, millions are waiting for the new release of Indiana Jones coming in May. Those first drawn to the big-screen debut remember vividly the quest for history’s most hunted relic: the Ark of the Covenant.

That same year, two real-life raiders went on their own search for the Ark. There were no Nazis and no snake pits - like the movie--just two Rabbis on a mission. Their search came to an end in Jerusalem.

Gershon Salomon, Founder of Temple Mount Faithful stated, “God signed, like with a pen, the location where the Ark of the Covenant was located. You can see it today even, on the rock.”

The Ark of the Covenant was the place of meeting between God and man. In 586 B.C., Israel was conquered by the Babylonians. The Temple was raided by Nebuchadnezzar’s army and the Ark disappeared.

Jewish writings say the prophet Jeremiah hid the Ark on Mount Nebo in Jordan. Another legend claims it was smuggled to Ethiopia by the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. In Israel, most Rabbis agree that when it comes to the Ark they say the Ark never left the city.

Interestingly, when Israeli troops recaptured Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-day War, the Western Wall was in Jewish hands. Archaeologists exposed parts of the wall that had been buried for 2000 years. In 1981, two of Israel’s highest-ranking Rabbis picked up their pick-axes and started chiseling their way under the Temple Mount.

Rabbi Getz “knew that at the end of the gate he will come to the secret room where the ark of covenant is located,” said Salomon, who was also one of the paratroopers who liberated the Western Wall in 1967. Salomon was there 14 years later the night opened a secret passage in the Wall and remembers their conversation.

“It was after midnight. And he called me and said to me, Gershon, come immediately, don’t wait; your dream is going to be fulfilled. ‘What happened?’ I told him. ‘The Messiah came?’ And he told me, ‘He is coming almost.’"

Before anything else could be done, Arab demonstrations broke out with rumors that the Israelis were trying to build their temple underneath the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s third most holy site. At the end of the day, the passage to the Temple Mount was permanently sealed by Israeli Police.

“No doubt, I tell you. No doubt, we needed just two days more to come to the place where the Ark of the Covenant is located,” Salomon explained.

Scholars may not agree on the fate of the Ark but many of them agree on one thing: its discovery could set in motion another event that’s been 2000 years in the making - the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple.

Ezra and Nehemiah suggest that when it’s time to build the third temple, the second temple treasures will be found. Why? Because that’s what happened with the building of the second temple in Jewish history.

Gershon Salomon is convinced that it’s not that far off. “It is soon to come, I tell you, I promise you, and you check me. Test me. It will be in our lifetime.”

And with it, comes the return of Jesus Christ to setup His kingdom!