or Nature’s Fury?
Horrendous Hurricane Katrina brought death and destruction to a
U.S. city unparalleled in our history! Is this a major sign of the
beginning of Great Tribulation and the Times of Jacob’s Trouble?
It occurred right before the Feast of Yom Teruah – the Feast of
Trumpets, Shouting, Crying Out – representing Repentance, and
the beginning of the Days of Awe! What does it all mean?
William F. Dankenbring
August 28-29, the worst natural disaster ever to strike America blasted its way through the Gulf Coast, smashing through New Orleans, and leaving in its wake indescribable destruction, horror, suffering, and thousands of people dead.
Hurricane Katrina howled and blew like a Banshee, as it roared its way across the Southern Gulf States, with particular vengeance to Mississippi and New Orleans, the city built below sea level and protected only by levees holding back waters from Lake Ponchartrain and the Mississippi River.
Never were so many in this country so paralyzed and devastated so quickly, and it is clear that the government – from local, regional, state, and national – were not prepared or equipped to handle such a blow.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich opined, as the devastation became evident, as well as the slowness of federal forces to respond to the disaster, “If we can’t respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we’re prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?”
Good question! The lack of preparedness, coupled with the power of fear and apathy before the storm hit, brought nothing but chaos, anarchy, and grief to thousands of refugees in New Orleans. Even though many thousands survived, and made their way to the Superdome and the city’s convention center, that was merely the beginning of their ordeal. According to the New Orleans chief of police, women who fled to the convention center were viciously raped and beaten. An eye-witness, Allan Gould, inside the convention center, said women and small children were being raped and killed. He called it genocide.
“We are living like pure animals,” said a 68-year old minister. “We don’t have water. We don’t have food. We don’t have help.”
A 23-year old woman tending to her 4-year old daughter averred, “God is punishing New Orleans” for its corruption and crime.
As if in response to her lament, with angry crowds trying to flee the city, people who waited too late to get out before the hurricane struck, despite being warned over and over, shooters targeted police officials, and a military helicopter evacuating hospital patients. Criminals were set free by police, and proceeded to rampage through the city with other thugs and hooligans. Many New Orleans police officers quit on the spot, saying they weren’t going to risk their lives to fight looters on the street. One crowd, seeing a man raping a 12-year old girl, took matters into their own hands, and beat the assailant to death. There were no police around to secure law and order.
Why did it happen? Was it divine punishment upon a wicked, profligate city and its inhabitants?
Hurricane Katrina walloped New Orleans just two days before the annual homosexual “Southern Decadence” festival which was to begin in the city. “Southern Decadence” has a history of filling the French Quarter with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars. This year’s 34th annual festival, which drew 124,000 people last year, was to begin in the “Big Easy” August 31 and run through the following Monday.
With parades and non-stop reveling parties, and widespread displays of naked flesh, which characterize the event, “Southern Decadence” lives up to its name and public displays of sexuality and copulating men are pretty much everywhere you look, according to “Southern Decadence 2005: A How-To Guide.”
Says “Repent America” director Michael Marcavage, “Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city. From ‘Girls Gone Wild’ to ‘Southern decadence,’ New Orleans was a city that opened its door wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same” (WorldnetDaily, “Hurricane hits just before homosexual event,” August 31, 2005).
Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans officially welcomed the homosexual mob with a form letter, saying, “The City of New Orleans extends to you our heartfelt gratitude for coming to our unique mecca on the Mississippi River. . . There is no place like this place on earth! Southern Decadence XXXII is an exciting event! We welcome you and know that you can anticipate great food, great music and great times in New Orleans.”
And now – New Orleans is no more. God’s wrath and fury took it out!
Who’s To
Blame?
The hurricane was one thing, but who’s primarily to blame for the weak and miserable handling of the disastrous event?
Some democrats are blaming Bush, as is their knee-jerk response to any thing that seemingly could make them political capital. They politicize the disaster. However, George Bush and the federal government are not primarily at fault for the ensuing problems encountered due to the flooding of New Orleans. Most of the blame must be placed where it belongs – at the feet of local and state officials – especially the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana!
Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco both came up very short in effective response to the overwhelming catastrophe. Historically, the primary response in disasters has always come from local communities and state governments. In the United States, each state is sovereign and the federal government cannot just “send troops” unless the individual state requests it. Unfortunately, Kathleen Blanco dragged her feet and refused to declare a state of emergency, frustrating the federal government’s efforts to send in troops in a timely manner. The federal government’s main duty is to “assist” local and state governments in handling disasters.
Couldn’t the federal government have just sent in the troops? Before that happens, the governor of the state is supposed to ask for help. If Bush had sent in the troops without being asked, the same individuals screaming for his head now would have been screaming about his abrogating the U.S. Constitution and acting unlawfully.
In addition, every state in the United States has a National Guard, which answers first to the governor, not to the president. New Orleans had 48 hours of warning that a category 4 or 5 hurricane was barreling down upon it – yet did pitifully little to prepare for it. Blanco did not effectively deploy her National Guard. New Orleans’ civic leaders did almost nothing to evacuate the population beforehand. Nor did they pre-position food, water and personnel to deal with the aftermath. New Orleans’ own evacuation plan, long in existence, was not followed. Buses were never deployed. It was a fiasco of monumental proportions.
The mayor himself was largely responsible for the lack of coordinated preparation and response to Hurricane Katrina. In televised remarks before the hurricane struck, President Bush urged all residents of New Orleans to evacuate and get to safe ground. He said, “We cannot stress enough the danger the this hurricane poses to Gulf Coast communities.” But thousands did not respond. The mayor did nothing. He had over two hundred school buses and many more municipal buses, and access to thousands more Louisiana National Guard, but did nothing. Then, when the flood waters of the hurricane drowned the buses, and it was too late to evacuate, he cursed and swore and blamed the national government for failing to take action – even cursing and taking the name of God in vain. As the Drudge Report asked the mayor in a blazing headline, “Why Didn’t You Deploy the Buses During the Evacuation, Mayor?”
Mayor Nagin said, “The storm surge most likely will topple our levee system.” Yet he did nothing. He gambled. He risked everything, just as he did when he took money over the years that was to go to upgrading the levee system and supporting infrastructure, and spent it buying and building gambling Casinos!
Yet the fact remains that the federal government, for whatever reason, was slow to respond to the developing crisis. There is a lot of hand-wringing, blame, and responsibility to pass around – to the people, the local government, state and national governments, Congress, FEMA, and others for being so slow to get a hand on things.
It was certainly a national disgrace. But it was also a Louisiana disgrace – and a New Orleans disgrace. Up to 1,000,000 jobs will be lost due to Katrina. This will have repercussions throughout the economy of the nation and the world in months to come. If the port of New Orleans and the Mississippi River are not opened up for shipping, and the docks cleared for loading and unloading, it will cause a major hit on U.S. exports and business, especially agriculture.
The Two
Bushes and Clinton
A picture in the papers shows President Bush attempting to console survivors of the Katrina hurricane disaster, while critics assail his government for doing too little and much too late to alleviate suffering and looting and anarchy in New Orleans. Standing beside him are ex-presidents William Clinton and George H. W. Bush. It is curious to note that while FEMA got itself untangled, New Orleans drowned, as two massive levees broke, probably due to under-funding during both the Clinton and Bush administrations, causing strengthening and critical repairs to go unmade in the interim.
It is also curious to note that while these three presidents were actively involved in compelling Israel to agree to negotiations to divide Israel’s covenant land and to agree to a Palestinian state to be created on God’s inheritance to Israel, the United States experienced nine of the ten costliest insurance events in U.S. history; six of the seven costliest hurricanes, three of the four largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history, and nine of the ten top natural disasters in U.S. history, as ranked by FEMA relief costs – not to mention the two largest terrorism events in U.S. history!
Hurricane Katrina is by far the worst natural disaster to strike the United States, even paling into relative insignificance the Galveston hurricane of 1900 in which 9,000 were killed. Cost estimates to repair the damage have soared to $200,000,000,000 (that’s billion!) dollars. The whole Gulf Coast is virtually wiped out. The whole city of New Orleans had to be evacuated, amid much consternation, suffering, travail, dysfunctional hospitals, rampaging thugs and criminals shooting AK-47s at police and helicopters – it was a nightmarish scene right out of Hell.
Could this be the spark and fireworks – the beginning waves – of the Great Tribulation, prophesied in the pages of the Bible thousands of years ago?
The magnitude of the Katrina disaster has yet to be fathomed or comprehended. It is still unraveling and deepening. Yet it could all have been averted, or mitigated, with wise planning and forethought!
Says Ron Fournier, AP political writer:
“At every turn, politicians failed Katrina’s
victims. They didn’t strengthen
the levees. The ceded the streets to marauding
looters. They left dead bodies
to rot or bloat. Thousands suffered or died for lack of
water, food and hope.
Who’s at fault?
“There’s plenty of blame to go
around – the White House, Congress, federal
agencies, local governments, police
and even residents of the Gulf Coast who
refused orders to evacuate. But all the finger-pointing misses the
point: Poli-
ticians and the people they lead too
often ignore danger signs until a crisis
hits.
“It wasn’t a secret that levees
built to keep New Orleans from flooding could
not withstand a major hurricane, but government leaders
never found the
money to fully shore up the network
of earthen, steel and concrete barriers.
“Both the Bush and Clinton
administrations proposed budgets that low-balled
the needs. Local politicians grabbed whatever money they could and declared
victory. And the public didn’t exactly demand tax increases to pay for
flood-
control and hurricane-protection
projects” (Sept.1, 2005).
Everyone
seems to seek to shift the blame for the tragedy on to someone else. Others say “we could not have known.” Bill Clinton told CNN, “I’m telling you,
nobody ever thought it would happen like this.” But that is not true. Experts
have been warning for decades that a major hurricane would hit New Orleans,
swamp the levees, and fill the bowl-shaped city with water.Yet Bush also
concurred that nobody anticipated the breaching of the levees protecting the
city. Also, not true. The levees were built to withstand a category
3 hurricane – but not a category 4 or 5.
Needless
to say, people are very disappointed with their political leaders – from mayors
and governors of some of the afflicted states, particularly Louisiana and New
Orleans, right up to Congress and the President, FEMA and Homeland
Security.
President
Harry Truman once said, in reflecting on his responsibility for what occurs in
or to the United States: “The buck
stops here.” He acknowledged his
responsibilities, whether he was right or wrong about a matter.
But
today is the day it seems for passing the buck and shifting the blame, like a
game of “hot potato”!
A
Coast Guard helicopter pilot, on the scene in New Orleans, involved in
evacuating people from rooftops and hotels, transporting patients from
hospitals, and carrying supplies, said of the chaotic scene: “I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen
the media not exaggerate.” He and co-pilot evacuated over 119 people from
rooftops, hospitals, staging areas, roads, and levees, for hours on end,
filling the helicopter with refugees, yet only making a dent in the numbers who
needed evacuation.
He
declared, “It was heartbreaking to fly for over eight hours, return to base and
know that there were still hundreds, if not thousands, of people who still
needed us.” His most emotional moment
was in evacuating expectant mothers and infants from a downtown New Orleans
hospital. Lt. Skip Dronen added, “I saw
the worst in people and the best in people.
I can’t imagine being on the ground for this. I think it’s testing people’s limits to the extreme – the
incredible disruption of the city. New
Orleans is still under water, communication is down. Infrastructure is destroyed.
And the environmental conditions – raw sewage, gasoline – everything is
floating and people are in it” (The Wenatchee World, Sept.2, 2005).
A national talk-show host, George Noory, on his morning “Coast to Coast AM” program, believes that the severity of Hurricane Katrina is clear evidence that civilization is now in the “End Times” as described in the Bible. He said, “I don’t think there’s any doubt. I think we’re in it. I really do.” While he explained he did not mean an imminent end to all life of earth, he referred to the book of Revelation in the New Testament, and said current events are “the beginning of the end.”
Said Noory, “In this particular case, eventually it’s going to effect everybody in the United States in some form or fashion. And as you see the price of oil going up, as you see shortages, as you see the price at the grocery store going up you’re going to realize just how serious a tragedy this really is.” He went on, “It’s time to rethink the priorities of this country first and foremost . . . I always wonder, why did this have to happen now? Think about that for a moment. If you believe that there are no coincidences, why would this happen? I mean why would divine Providence want this to happen to us now?”
Indeed, it is worth thinking about. If there is a God, and we know that there is, then WHY did such a disaster have to happen NOW? What is His “game plan”? For every effect, there must be a CAUSE! Why, then, would God cause such a tragedy and catastrophe to occur at this time?
Men of course will not believe “God” had anything to do with it. They attribute these sort of calamities to “Mother Nature.” They speak of the “wrath of Mother Nature.” It’s almost as if they attribute to “Mother Nature” the power of God Himself!
But “Mother Nature” is a figment of the futile imagination of men. She is a hoax – a fraud – a nonexistent person or being. Like Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny! As long as we attribute these sort of disasters to a fictitious nonentity called “Mother Nature,” we deny REALITY and continue living in a “dream world” of make-believe and fantasy.
God IS! God EXISTS! And He has ALL POWER and RULES in the affairs of men and nations! The prophet Daniel wrote, “the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will” (Dan.4:25). Or, “the Most High has sovereignty over the kingdom of mortals, and gives it to whom he will” (NRSV). God says in His Word, “See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god besides me. I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear: As I live forever, when I whet my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold of JUDGMENT; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me” (Deut.32:239-41, NRSV).
In fact, God declares in Isaiah’s prophecy, “There is none beside Me. I am the LORD and there is no other; I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace and create CALAMITY; I, the LORD, do all these things” (Isaiah 45:6-7, NKJV).
In further fact, the prophet Amos cries out, “If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is CALAMITY in a city, will not the LORD have done it?” (Amos 3:6). “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (next verse).
These
calamities come from the HAND OF GOD!
Not “Mother Nature”! As long as
we deceive ourselves and speak nonsense and piffle, we deny the TRUTH and
refuse to face up to REALITY and the burning question, “WHY?” “WHY would a loving GOD do such a thing?”
Obviously, He must have a reason. Do we dare try to figure it out? Do we DARE ask Him? Do we really want to know?
The bottom line, when we boil it down to its essence, all calamity is caused by “SIN.” It comes as punishment from the Almighty. Hurricane Katrina was nothing less than a MESSENGER from the Almighty that our ways, as a nation, are not pleasing in His sight, and He has just about had enough of our pernicious, wicked, abominable ways an corrupt doings!
What is “sin”? Aha, that is the question. Men may have many personal opinions, but the only definition that counts is GOD’s own definition. In His Word, He tell us: “Sin IS the transgression of the Law” (I John 3:4, KJV). Or, “Sin IS lawlessness” (NKJV, NRSV). What “law”? Why, God’s Law, of course! Sin is violation of the Ten commandments, the statutes, and judgments and ordinances of Almighty God, as they are written in His Word – the Torah, teaching, or Law of GOD!
Certainly our great nation, the world’s professed “only great superpower,” today, is guilty before God of thumbing its collective noses at His Law. We have thrown His Bible out of our classrooms, cast His commandments out of our judicial buildings, and threaten to expunge His name from the Pledge of Allegiance. We have removed prayer from our schools and forbidden it – all supposedly in the name of “freedom of religion,” which appears to mean, by definition, today, as “freedom FROM religion”!
God says to His true servants, today, “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice LIKE A TRUMPET; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their SINS” (Isaiah 58:1, NKJV). God says we as nations seek Him daily, we like to approach Him, go to church, AS IF we wanted to obey Him and enjoy His favor – but we really don’t mean it. Instead, He says, while we pretend to be righteous and take pride in being “God’s people,” we “exploit all your laborers,” “strike with the fist of wickedness,” and engage in “strife and debate” (Isa.58:3-4).
Our national sins are beginning to catch up with us. They will not go unpunished. God says that if we do not obey Him,, “But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the LORD; and be sure your sins will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).
What are our sins? The catalogue is huge. Where shall we start?
What sins could be so bad as to incur God’s immense yet controlled wrath?
Consider this! Katrina devastated the wretched, the miserable, the poor and helpless of New Orleans. All our hearts to out to them in sorrow and compassion, although we see that these disasters bring out both the best and the worst in human nature. Some rise to the occasion and become angels of mercy, and heroic saviors. Others fall to the depths of degradation, and pillage, loot, burn, rape, and murder, creating anarchy, killing innocents, killing police, firing weapons at rescuing helicopters.
Yet, as we sense and behold the awesome devastation, we cannot help but cry out, as the prophet Habakkuk did, “O LORD, revive Your Work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy” (Hab.3:2).
What has New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi done to incur the wrath of God? New Orleans is known as the “Big Easy.” It is renown for its “Anything Goes” attitude of pleasure-mongering, self titillation, sexual licentiousness, prostitution, together with “Mardi Gras,” which is the explosion of the celebration of sex and self-indulgence just before Lent, known as “Fat Tuesday.” New Orleans is the U.S. capital of voodoo and black magic, witchcraft and sorcery, and paganism and the occult. It is a gambling mecca and cesspool of immorality and corruption. No one likes to hear their city defamed, but let’s face it – God has destroyed New Orleans, and He must have had a reason to do so! It should be an object lesson to the rest of America, to see and hear, and fear, and repent, before it is too late!
Will we get the message? Will our leaders? New Orlean’s fate was only a “warning” – a “shot across the bow” of our ship of state! A Warning to America to “Repent or Perish!”
The entire Gulf Coast of Mississippi, from Biloxi to Gulfport, was lined with gambling casinos – floating gambling houses and hotels. They are now all destroyed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, in the fluttering of an eyelash.
The homosexual community was about to hold an enormous homosexual parade in New Orleans, when the hurricane hit with all its fury. Homosexual parades in New Orleans are famous for their profligacy, with open sex, public sexual acts, taking place right in the parade – as I said earlier, “anything goes” – and so God’s anger, which no doubt had been building up and reaching a crescendo, finally spilled over, and He lashed out with His whip – the winds of Hurricane Katrina.
But there is more to the story than that. What other sins were and are so grievous that God would strike such a terrific blow at one of America’s greatest port cities?
There is a connection between Gush Katif and Hurricane Katrina. We have been watching on television the heart-rending scenes of Jews being forcibly removed from their ancestral homes in Gush Katif, in Gaza. Rabbi Lazar Brody, an Orthodox Jew, on his website wrote: “8,500 Jews evacuated from Gaza – 850,000 Americans forced to flee their homes in Louisiana, Condoleeza Rice’s home state [Its really not her home state, she grew up in Alabama. However, part of her late father’s family is from Louisiana – Editor].”
He wrote about “Katrina’s Message,” before it struck the Gulf Coast, with perceptive, uncanny and preternatural insight and understanding:
“Rebbe Nachman of Breslev teaches that we must
constantly search
for the Divine message in all the
events of our lives, since Hashem
[“The Name,” an appellation for
“God”] speaks to us by way of our
environment. . . .
“Katrina is hitting just as the
bulldozers are completing the destruction
of Gush Katif. The [sages] teach that Hashem administers
the world
according to the ‘ATFAT’ principle,
in other words, ‘a turn for a turn’
. . . My heart tells me that there’s
a link between the forced expulsion
of 8500 people from their blood,
sweat, and tear-soaked homes in Israeli
Gaza and between the nearly 850,000
people who are forced to flee from
their homes in Louisiana.
“Sharon, at the prodding of the
American government, has destroyed
hallowed centers of prayer, Torah
learning, and settlement in the Land
of Israel. Hashem isn’t wasting much time in showing His wrath. In
fact, Katrina has chosen Ms Rice’s
home state [rather, part of her late
father’s
family came from Louisiana, as I said before] as a target; I humbly
believe that the unfortunate people
of Louisiana can blame Mr. Bush
and Ms. Rice for their
misfortune. This is a classic ATFAT
situation:
He who creates exiles in the Holy
Land, will have a hundred-fold exiles
In his own land.”
Rabbi Lazar Brody then revealed the gematria (numerical equivalence) of “Katrina,” written in Hebrew, with passages in the Torah, with the same gematric numerical equivalent.
“Katrina, written . . . in Hebrew, has a numerical
equvalent of 374. Two
relevant passages in Torah share the
exact numerical equivalent of 374 also:
[Hebrew for] ‘They have done you
evil’ (see Gen.50:17), and [the Hebrew
for] ‘The sea upon the land’ (see
Exodus 14:15). The former passage may
be an indication as to the spiritual
cause of Katrina, while the latter passage
describes the physical
manifestation.”
Says Rabbi Brody, “Mr. Bush and Ms. Rice, I implore you to repent, to ask Hashem’s forgiveness for destroying a flourishing part of Israel. Cancel all your demands for further territorial concessions in Israel. If by your initiative more Jews are rendered homeless, G-d forbid, I shudder to think of what could happen. Please take Katrina very seriously, for she is a no-nonsense messenger from The Almighty.”
It is interesting that in English, “Katrina” and “Katif” are in linguistics what we call “cognates” – they have comparable roots! Says Victor Schlatter, of South Pacific Island Ministries, in Australia:
“Unfortunately the aftermath of Gush Katif has yet
to unfold, and the
same might be said for Katrina’s
wake from the present incomprehensible
wanton human suffering to fuel
prices to whatever lasting devastation it
makes to the global economy.
“When will the world’s politicians –
left, right or center – learn? When
will they care? When will we learn?
“You know, I speak in churches, I go to old friends,
I go to new friends
and I go from nation to nation. Unfortunately, some people still don’t
seem to get it. Some remark about my ‘devotion’ to Israel as
something
above and beyond the pale; others
pledge prayer for Israel as if they were
doing me a favor – or Israel a favor
for that matter.
“Let me tell you, if you pray for
Israel you’re actually including prayer
for yourself. The Messiah of Israel will be coming back to
a fairly grim
scenario in Jerusalem, as well as
worldwide. And it looks to be getting
much worse before it gets much
better” (see www.spim.org.au).
Disasters do not need to occur. Infractions against God’s laws and His purpose brings retribution and punishment. It is a simple Quid Pro Quo. Action brings Reaction. A law of physics, as it were.
Solomon, in his wisdom, wrote about the causes of calamities, and why they occur. He wrote, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Prov.29:18, KJV). The Jewish Tanakh has it, “For lack of vision a people lose restraint, but happy is he who heeds instruction.” The NRSV has it, “Where there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint, but happy are those who keep the law.” In the Septuagint version we read: “There shall be no interpreter to a sinful nation: but he that observes the law is blessed.”
The Hebrew word for “vision” can also mean “revelation” or “prophetic vision” (NKJV). The Hebrew word is chazown, meaning “a sight; i.e., a dream, revelation, or oracle – vision,” from chazah, a primitive root meaning “to gaze at, to perceive, contemplate, specifically to have a vision of.”
It seems without doubt that our nations leaders and our people today lack the perceptive quality of “vision.” They are unable to see the consequences of actions and events – they have no understanding of the future results from their current deeds.
Isaiah the prophet foretold such a time as this. He declared that in the last days, “For now the Sovereign, the LORD of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah [and by implication all Israel!] support and staff – all support of bread, and all support of water – warrior and soldier, judge and prophet, diviner and elder, captain of fifty and dignitary, counselor and skillful magician and expert enchanter. And I will make boys their princes, and babes [in wisdom and understanding] shall rule over them. The people will be oppressed, everyone by a neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the base to the honorable” (Isaiah 3:1-5, NRSV).
Isaiah continues, scathingly, writing of our western nations, people, and leadership today: “The look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on THEMSELVES. Tell the innocent how fortunate they are, for they shall eat the fruit of their labors. Woe to the GUILTY! How unfortunate they are, for what their hands have done shall be done to them.
“My people – children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.. O my people, your leaders MISLEAD YOU, and confuse the course of your paths” (Isaiah 3:9-12, NRSV).
Truly, our leaders look befuddled, confused, dazed, and uncomprehending, today!
Just look at the “fruits”!
The
LXX has this passage, Behold now, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will take away .
. . the mighty man and mighty woman, the strength of bread and the strength of
water, the great and mighty man, the warrior and the judge, and the prophet,
and the counselor, and the elder . . . and the wise artificer, and the
intelligent hearer. And I will make
youths their princes, and mockers shall have dominion over them . . . . O my
people, they that pronounce you blessed lead you astray, and pervert the path
of your feet.”
Where are the Teddy Roosevelts, today? Where are the Abraham Lincolns, the George Washingtons, the Winston Churchills?
Where are our national statesmen? Instead, we have political hacks, and opportunists, and mere politicians, with no real sense of what is right and wrong! Our foreign policy is leading us to condemn and destroy ourselves. We cuddle up with our enemies, the Russians and Red China, and allow them open access to our markets, and we are stand-offish to our friends, especially the tiny nation of Israel, the jewel of God’s eye, the best friend we have – and we compel them to do things which are not in their best interest, things which present a security nightmare. We force them to truncate their state, and sever their nation, to split northern Israel from southern Israel, by joining the nefarious Gaza with the West Bank, making the Palestinian state “whole,” and connected, by disconnecting Israel!
The wrath and rage and fury of God are just beginning. His nostrils are about to smoke in anger and furious strokes lie ahead in our short-term future, because of our perfidy and wickedness, our pride and insolence, our scheming and political machinations. We turn out back on God’s nation and people, Israel, and cozy up to Palestinian terrorists!
Don Feder tells it like it is. He writes,
“Imagine the following scenario: In the wake of 9/11 and the murder of
3,000 Americans, President Bush
announces a unilateral disengagement
from the war on terrorism.
The U.S. determines to do nothing about
Saddam Hussein or al-Qaeda camps in
Afghanistan. Troops will be
withdrawn from Saudi Arabia and
America will end support for Israel.
“What do you think the outcome would
have been? Unless your Cindy
Sheehan or Michael Moore, the answer
is obvious – more terrorism,
total war on the home-front. That’s exactly what Israel and the world
will get from the ethnic cleansing of
Gaza.
“In yet another example of pervasive
bias, the liberal media referred
to last week’s forcible cleansing of
roughly 9,000 Jews from Gaza and
parts of Samaria (and the
destruction of homes, businesses, farms and
synagogues) as an ‘evacuation.’ That’s like calling Kristallnacht [the
rampage
against the Jews in Austria prior to World War II] urban
renewal.
“When people are driven from their
homes because of their religion or
race, it’s ethnic cleansing. The Israelis are the first people in history
to
ethnically cleanse themselves (so
much for the theory of Jewish intelli-
gence), all to make way for a
Palestinian state, which, the international
community has decreed, will be Judenrein.
“After the establishment of Jihadistan, one
million Arab Muslims will
continue to reside in what’s left of
Israel, while not one Jew will be
allowed to live in Judea and Samaria
(AKA: The West Bank) or Gaza.
In other words, the Palestinians
will succeed where the anti-Semites of
antiquity . . . failed: There will be no Jews in Biblical Israel. .
. .
“Palestinian terrorists (a
redundancy) were exultant. What they’ve
been
unable to achieve in military
confrontations, Ariel Sharon, George Bush,
the US State Department and European
Union handed them on a silver
platter. As Munich was for Hitler, it only whetted their appetites.
“Muhammad Def (on the top of
Israel’s terrorist most-wanted list) jeered
at the Israelis from his Gaza rat
hole: ‘Today you leave Gaza in
humiliation.
You are leaving hell. But we promise that, with Allah’s help, all
of Palestine
(i.e., Israel) will turn into hell
for you. We will not rest until we
liberate our
entire holy land.’
“This is no idle boast.
“In the few days since the destruction
of 25 thriving Jewish communities was
completed, a yeshiva student was
stabbed to death in Jerusalem, an Israeli
border cop was stabbed in the throat
in Hebron and two Qassam rockets were
fired from Gaza into the Israeli
town of Sderot. Only quick thinking by
a bus
driver prevented a bloodbath in
Beersheba, where a suicide bomber in a bus
station succeeded in killing only
himself, and injuring a score of passengers.
“But this is merely an aperitif,
compared with what will surely follow.
“Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas
(hailed by the administration as a moderate)
joyfully proclaimed, ‘We will not
rest until they (‘the Zionist enemy’) leave all
of our land.’ Official maps produced by the so-called
Palestinian Authority make
it clear that ‘all of our land’
means not just Gaza city, Ramallah, Jenin and East
Jerusalem –but West Jerusalem, Tel
Aviv, Maifa and Netanya. . . .
“While IDF soldiers were driving
other Jews from their homes, PA Prime
Minister Ahmed Qurei was in Damascus
hammering out a deal with Hammas
and Islamic Jihad, confirming what
realists knew all along: The PA will do
nothing to disarm them or to hamper
their operations in Gaza.
“Remember Bush’s 2002 Rose Garden
declaration that the ball was in the
Palestinians’ court and that it was
now up to them to prove their commitment
to ending terrorism?
“Recall Sharon’s assurances,
starting with his 2001 campaign for prime minister,
that there would be no concessions,
no talks, not even pre-negotiations, until
the Palestinians stopped killing
pregnant women, toddlers and elderly Holocaust
survivors? . . .
“All of it was empty rhetoric –
posturing designed to placate constituencies and
soothe consciences.
“Gaza is the first bitter fruit of those
hollow words. Washington fights
terrorism
in Iraq and Afghanistan (at the cost
of more than 2,000 American lives) and
rewards it in Israel. How long will it be before al Qeada sets up
shop in Gaza
city, along with Islamic terrorists
from Kashmir, Chechnya, the Philippines, etc.?
“. . . Who gets the bill for this
fiasco?
“First and foremost, Ariel Sharon,
who has lustily embraced the illusion of
land-for-peace – a suicidal fantasy
he would have scorned a decade ago.
“Sharon has based his political
career on being Bush’s buddy. ‘I have
the
best relationship with the Americans
of any Israeli leader,’ Sharon bragged
when he ran for re-election.
“That ‘special relationship’ has
come with a hefty price tag: Sharon has
ceded his national security policy
to Foggy Bottom. ‘This is what the U.S.
State Department is demanding that I
do, and I must do it,’ Sharon reportedly
pleaded to the Chief Rabbi of Haifa
to justify the Gaza surrender. Someone
forgot to tell the general that he
is prime minister of Israel, and not Condo-
leeza Rice (who, by the way, warns
her subordinate in Jerusalem that ‘It
cannot be Gaza only’).
“Blame Bush too. It’s wrong to say that W. is willing to
sacrifice Israel to
what he perceives to be the new,
post-Iraw, alignment of US interests in the
Middle East. The reality is much worse. The president really believes that
all of this will work – that the
Palestinians will have a state aimed like a
dagger at the heart of Israel, and
the latter will have ‘secure borders.’ That
will happen when Osama bin Laden
converts and has his bar mitzvah at
the Wall in Jerusalem.
“Bush has an undeserved reputation
as a hardheaded foreign-policy realist.
In reality, much of the time he
inhabits a dream world. He refuses to
protect
our borders from terrorist
infiltration or from people who could become our
Palestinians in a generation. . . .
“Its not about Gaza or Judea and
Samaria; it’s about Israel.
“Without the territory liberated in
1967, the rest of Iisrael is indefensible.
Abba Eban, a leader of the left
Labor Party, called Israel’s pre-’67 boundaries
‘Auschwitz borders.’ Every U.S. general who’s visited the region
essentially
has said the same thing: Without the high ground of Judea-Samaria,
without
strategic depth, Israel cannot be
defended. . .
“Sharon and Bush are sleepwalking
through history (participants in a lethal
Middle East slumber party). Pray that something shakes both leaders out
of
Their somnambulistic state before
Israel drifts into that not-so good night”
(Grasstops USA, Sept.3, 2005).
Is
there a direct connection between Hurricane Katrina and the forced evacuation
of Gush Katif? Is there a connection
between the immorality and homosexual festival scheduled for New Orleans and
the furious onslaught of the winds of Katrina?
Not
everybody will see or admit to the connection.
Yet it is as real and palpable as the earth beneath our feet. But the apostle Peter was inspired to
prophesy of our times, the “last days,” before the end of this present age,
“Knowing this first, that SCOFFERS will come in the last days, walking
according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His
coming? For since the fathers fell
asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation’” (II
Pet.3:3-4, NKJV).
The
NRSV has this passage: “First of all,
you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing
and indulging their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his
coming? For ever since our ancestors
died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’”
The
Word of God warns, “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap what
you sow. If you sow to your own flesh,
you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will
reap eternal life from the Spirit” (Gal.6:7-8).
Solomon
wrote wisely, “Do not remove the ancient landmark, which your fathers have set”
(Prov.22:28). “Do not remove the
ancient landmark” (23:10). In fact, the
prophet Hosea prophesied, “The princes of Judah are like those who remove a
landmark.” So God declares, same verse,
“I will pour out MY WRATH on them like water.”
And the very next verse: “Ephraim
[the United States] is oppressed and broken in judgment” (Hosea
5:10-11). Notice how God connects the
two nations together! God continues,
“Because he [Ephraim – the U.S.] willingly walked by human precept, therefore I
will be to Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like rottenness”
(vs.11-12).
By retreating from Gaza and
cities in the West Bank, the Jews are effectively “removing the ancient
landmark.” They are giving up HOLY land
to the unholy infidels and corrupt Palestinians. God is not pleased – and He will not remain silent. He has already spoken, in His wrath and
fury, and unless our nations repent of their wrong-doing and malfeasance and
lack of FAITH, He will send even more plagues and devastating blows up our
lands.
What will happen now? What does Bible prophecy say? The prophet Hosea warned, “For they sow the
wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7, NRSV). Certainly, hurricane Katrina was an awesome,
horrendous “whirlwind” of destruction.
These are the beginning of
the “times of Jacob’s trouble.” As
Jeremiah foretold 2,500 years ago: “Ask
now, and see, if a man is ever in labor with child [literally, if a male can
give birth, or childbirth]? So why do I
see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces
turned pale? Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like
it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of
it” (Jeremiah 30:6-7, NKJV).
Hurricane Katrina, I fully believe, is the beginning of the final “times of Jacob’s trouble” – a “time of distress for Jacob” (NRSV) – “a time of straitness to Jacob” (LXX) – the harbinger of worse calamities and disasters yet to unfold and come upon us, because of our growing sins, self-indulgence, corruption, and lies. “Repent,” the Word of God says. Repent, and “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you” (see John 5:14).
What Went Wrong?
There
has been a great deal of blame game analysis and
finger
pointing, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,
much
of it politically-motivated. Much of
the disaster
itself
can be blamed on human politics, as well as short-
sightedness
and greed. The disaster did not have to
happen. The breach of the levees was the greater
disaster
by
far – and it was certainly preventable.
Much of the
ensuing
chaos, anarchy, rioting, and suffering also could
have
been prevented, if local and state authorities had
acted
with wisdom, foresight, and common sense.
The
following
analysis is an in-depth attempt to
point out
lessons
we should learn from Katrina.
“While
no doubt DoD is responding in way not yet seen or understood the anarchy we are
witnessing in New Orleans should give all local, state and national level
planners pause given that we had 48 hrs warning for this hurricane. . . the
terrorists will not give us a 48 hr. warning in a nuke strike.
“Because
we have a federal political system, the President and national agencies are
going to work in support of state and local officials-not usurp them or ‘take
over.’ However certain crises are so severe that local and state officials are
overwhelmed...in the case of New Orleans and Louisiana we are seeing that. Our
federal system ordinarily requires appropriate state authorities to request
specific support . . . but where states are reluctant to admit failure for
reason of pride or politics, I assume the President has his own authorities and
New Orleans appears to be a collapsing environment.
“Northcom
has the lead for coordinating DoD activities and military support to civil
authorities for crisis management and consequence management; the new Joint Pub
3-26 for Homeland Security just published this month makes that clear. Northcom
has liaison staffs now in each of the affected states.
“I
understand there is a command post set up at Camp Shelby, the Navy is steaming
from Norwalk with disaster relief supplies, so it does look like there was some
leaning forward since the weekend-given those ships were unlikely loaded for
that last Friday. . . I also know that AMC is running crisis response activities
now.
“But
New Orleans just showed us the following [even though the FEMA director has
said that New Orleans was their number catastrophic planning scenario over the
last several years. . .]
“1.
The US is incapable of evacuating more than 50% of even a medium size city with
48 hours notice. Evacuation plans do not take into consideration those who
cannot evacuate because of no cars, no money, etc. Also the evacuation was
voluntary-if you're not forced to leave under ‘mandatory evacuation notice’ –
it’s voluntary. Why weren’t school buses and other public transportation assets
mobilized to evacuate the city? [Note: It appears the City and State leadership
was unprepared and not ready for this emergency].
“2.
The ‘shelters’ are nothing more than disasters waiting to happen, i.e.
SuperDome. 12 hours after power went out at the SuperDome, the people were on
the verge of rioting. Sanitation has collapsed there. The roof has open holes
in it. No A/C. People are being allowed to go out of the Dome for fresh air. Now
– imagine a disaster where fresh air is not an option. There is no information
being given to the people. No satellite system for Public Information. No
chemical toilets/porta-potties brought in, given anticipated electrical
failures. Bottom-line the Superdome was not well planned for as a ‘shelter’
[The City and State leadership was unprepared, not ready].
“3.
You have to have plans in place and materials ready to be pushed forward or be
pre-positioned and New Orleans shows that a lot of that preparation was not
done with 48 hrs to get ready. Compare that to the readiness of Houston to
house refugees in the Astrodome, with the same 48 hrs warning-they will have
upwards of 15k cots, medical care, nurseries and heavy security along with
back-up systems [granted they have electrical power but any facility designated
for shelter should have alternate power sources.] [The City and State
leadership was unprepared, not ready].
“4.
I do not understand why the Corps of Engineers is now trying to determine how
to plug a breached levy in New Orleans under duress when ‘New Orleans was the
number 1 catastrophe for FEMA planning’? That would have to have been an
‘exercise’ scenario. I also do not understand why the levies were not
continuously improved over time. Some fingers are being pointed at the
Administration on that already and that will be a major political issue.
“5.
Our transportation infrastructure has serious vulnerabilities – i.e. bridges,
tunnels, etc. Major arteries in and out of New Orleans are down and the city is
largely cut off by land from the rest of the country. New Orleans isn't the
only city with those problems – imagine tunnels and bridges around NYC. Not a
pretty thought. Cities that can be cut off by water need to IMMEDIATELY make
sure that any disaster plans include use of boats etc for transport in and out
of the city after a disaster.
“6.
If martial law is imposed you have to be ready to use lethal force or you don't
have martial law; they are not doing it and the anarchy has now impacted rescue
and recovery.
“7.
I am surprised that the state did not mobilize police resources from other
locations and have them ready to go into New Orleans as soon as the hurricane
lifted and flooding was seen; local law enforcement there is not mission capable.
. . and should not have been expected to be.
However, doing this non-standard law enforcement mission requires
extraordinary planning which given what we are witnessing was not done,
consequently, . . .
“8.
I am more shocked that state National Guard forces were not ready to air
assault ground troops along with early entry command posts and sustainment
items. . . given that one could assume that ground transportation routes would
be disrupted. I understand that 60% of LA guard is in Iraq. . . given that fact
Guard commanders have to report their ‘other missions’ readiness status across
a range of assigned missions and the impacts of deployments and current
operations to respond to those other tasks – such as supporting state
emergencies. . . Either the LA guard is not ready for this mission, did not
fully plan contingencies or they did not push up their shortcomings to their
governor and the DoD level. They are not on the ground there yet.
“9.
Likewise, the active military components have immediate response forces in the
event of national emergencies across the various FEMA departments around the
United States. The use and release authority for military support to civil law
enforcement agencies [MSCLEA] have to come from the President and SecDef through
Northcom. . . at this point I am surprised that decision has not been made to
deploy those assets to support local law enforcement given what we are seeing
on TV. Either the state has not requested it, or is refusing it, or the
President has elected not to use his own national emergency authorities.
“10.
I have seen Hollywood movies that show more organization than this real world
crisis.
“Do
not doubt that the global jihadists are watching this and making their own
notes on our response capabilities and planning short-comings. . . We will need
to review this calamity of planning rapidly; four years after 9-11 we STILL
have SERIOUS communications, readiness and planning deficiencies.
“Also
the federal government through the Homeland Security Department is going to
have to take a more active oversight, inspection, compliance and readiness role
over the states for a full range of disasters.”
--
LTC Joseph C. Myers
Senior Army Advisor
Air Command and Staff
College, Maxwell AFB
Montgomery, AL
The Word of God speaks directly about the causes of human suffering and
misery. The prophet Jeremiah wrote,
“Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil
and bitter thing that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and the fear of Me
is not in you, says the Lord GOD of hosts” (Jeremiah 2:19). Paul in the New Testament provides the key
to the cause of these kinds of disasters.
He wrote, “Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of
peace they have not known. There is no
fear of God before their eyes” (Rom.3:16-18).
It is a simple case of “cause and effect.” No fear of God leads to lack of morality, which results in lack
of foresight and wisdom, which triggers catastrophic failure when troubles come
suddenly upon a nation or people.