The Treasure Hunt

Monday May 28, 2012 11:41 pm

Only one of the ten signs recorded in the Bible that herald's the return of Christ is not a sad sign... celestial events. Other than that one, each of the other nine signs bring about many deaths and much heartache throughout the world. Of course, even with celestial events there have been many people who have died: howbeit, usually by their own hand. Hale-Bopp immediately comes to mind. With the misguided Applewhite (Heaven's Gate founder) as their spiritual leader and because of a celestial event he caused more than three dozen people to take their own lives. But, the rest of the signs all have mass death that awaits  mostly unsuspecting people. And these deaths are not usually by their own hand.

I wrote that to say that this next sign I am writing about (FAMINE) is tragic on any scale... let alone at the level it is at in the world today. At present more than 850 million people in the world do not have enough daily food to sustain a healthy life. Most of these people dying from starvation, or from diseases that are caused by starvation live in developing countries. Each year approximately six million children will die before their fifth birthday because of malnutrition.

Here are some statistics taken from headlines. Since 2002 global food prices have soared. in 2008 for example , and in just one calendar year prices increased 35% from the previous year. A couple of examples on individual products. Keep in mind that I am talking about the world market and not just your corner grocery store. Between 2008 and 2009 dairy prices rose 80% and grain 42%.

Now I will list a few examples taken from other headlines around the world. The reason I am doing this is that we (in America especially) get a very skewed look at what is happening today in the rest of the world because, for the most part, we are living well in our own land.

In Thailand, farmers are sleeping in their fields because thieves are stealing rice, worth $600.00 a ton. (They are stealing the rice straight out of the fields.)

In Egypt four people were killed in a riot over flour that was being sold on the black market. Other countries that have also had riots over food are: Morocco, Senegal, and Cameroon.

Argentina, Kazakhstan and China have imposed restrictions on grain exports to try and keep more food in their own countries. Both Vietnam and India have also imposed similar restrictions on overseas sales of grain.

In cycles of fifty year periods certain regions of India gets overrun with rats... because of that they are expecting millions more to die from starvation or illness with malnutrition as a direct cause. The plague of rats (in 50 year cycles) is because of heavy flowering of a local species of bamboo. This flowering provides the rodents with a feast of high-protein foliage. Of course, once they consume the foliage they turn on the crops... consuming hundreds of tons of rice and corn. This cycle is called a mautam. The last one was 1958 and eye witness accounts recorded the rats devouring areas as large as a soccer field in a single night.

In Africa... maybe they are a little smarter? According to Africa News, Karamojongs... they have begun hunting down and eating rats as famine has already stricken that area.

I write this next part as a knock, and a way to poke fun of all the “green-living” people out there. According to many experts the worst damage is being done by government mandates and subsidies for biofuels that (supposedly) reduce carbon dioxide emissions and “fight” climate change. (What a joke!) Here is just one example: In 2009, 30% of the U.S. Grain harvest went to ethanol distilleries. Sure... feed cars, not people. (That ought to be Gore's new motto.)

And it's not just me saying that. In London, Gwynne Dyer wrote: “A huge amount of the world's farmland is being diverted to feed cars, not people.” This is what is leading to the famine the world faces today. In six of the last seven years the human race has consumed more grain than it grew. In 2009 world grain reserves were down to only 57 days... and that is the lowest it has been and just a decade before it had stood at 180 days. In 2009 nearly one in four bushels of corn was used by the U.S. To make ethanol.

I'll give one more quote on this matter about using food for gasoline. Janet Larson, director of research at the Earth Policy Institute (an environmental group in Washington) said, “Turning food into fuel for cars is a major mistake on many fronts. One, we're already seeing higher food prices in the American supermarket. Two, perhaps more serious from a global perspective, we're seeing higher food prices in developing countries where it's escalated as far as people rioting in the streets.”

The famine is already in many parts of the world and it is growing! Every year South Koreans speculate on how many more North Koreans will starve to death before the fall harvest. A U.N. Study said that at least one-third of the mothers and children in North Korea are malnourished or starving to death. The average eight year old boy in North Korea is 7 inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than a boy of the same age in South Korea. (That is what I mean by people literally starving to death quickly, or dying more slowly from being malnourished.)

Let me show you how this is not just a problem in impoverished countries. The Daily News in New York City said that the Food Bank, which supplies food to more than 1,000 agencies and helps about 1.3 million people, states that they are experiencing the worst shortages since their founding 25 years before.

Please remember... the world has seen famines before... and earthquakes, false prophets, etc. HOWEVER... the world has not seen all of the ten signs happening in record numbers and at the same time in history. That is why I believe that we are very close to Christ's return.

I'll give you a hint of when I expect it to be. Before I do though I also want to say that I really don't have an exact date... that would be preposterous. However, I do think I have some clues that might get us close to a timeline and on my last blog on this matter I will lay out certain events and the order I believe they will happen, and an approximate time of His return. Now, here is my clue for tonight and the ??? I think the rapture will take place.

I am 56... and I have no idea if I will live long enough to finish this blog in the next two minutes? However, if I were given (by God) my three-score and ten years the Bible speaks about... I don't believe I would be here on Earth to see my 70th year.

I am scheduled off work the next two days and other than some cycling I have no other plans... so, I might try and write some more and get this series finished sooner: rather than later. I think for now I might go and cry myself to sleep as I just saw the "70" in the above paragraph and I realize again that I am much closer to the end of life, rather than the beginning. LOL