Is there a connection between Australia electing an atheist PM and their current woes?

Brisbane suburbs, Australia's third largest city, evacuated!
"Cars and pedestrians were swept away last night when a 'super rainstorm' sent water raging through the streets of Toowoomba, west of Brisbane. At least eight people were killed and 72 were missing following the flash floods. Anna Bligh, Queensland's state premier, said: 'This has been a night of extraordinary events.... Yesterday's events brought the overall death toll in Queensland since the two-week-old flood crisis started to 18. Entire towns have been swamped, more than 200,000 people affected, and coal and farming industries virtually shut down. Brisbane Mayor Campbell Newman said some 6,500 homes, businesses and properties would be flooded within the city's borders by Thursday. ... Gary McGowan, a businessman who lives and works in a western suburb of the city, said: 'It's taking on new proportions and getting worse by the minute.'

The Wivenhoe Dam's ability to provide expansive flood protection to the city of Brisbane and surrounding districts was failing today. It is reported that the dam holding back water that protects Brisbane is at 190% of capacity (200% being the limit) and that even with daily water releases of 409,000 megaliters, it is now announced that "the dam could no longer protect the Queensland capital." Brisbane's power is out, the flood is predicted to be the worst in 118 years, and the entire city is now bracing.

An anonymous commenter on yesterday's post regarding the sudden flooding at Toowoomba, shared the following: "Toowoomba is on a mountain; on the Great Dividing Range (a mountain range that extends from Queensland to Victoria). If you can be flooded up there, where are you safe? (what a challenge to our pride, when we cannot rely on common sense, our gold bars or our infrastructure to save us from the unexpected). The authorities weren't prepared for this because it happened so fast, with rain causing flash floods in Toowoomba's streets then raging down the valley beneath, demolishing everything in its path. Ipswich and Brisbane are bracing for the highest flooding since 1974."

The commenter continued: "Brisbane suburbs are being evacuated, and the flood isn't expected to peak there for two more days. It's still raining. After ten years of drought, which devastated major farm production, we are now enduring floods that have washed away crops and good farm soil over vast areas. This means farmers losing incomes yet again, and food prices will soar Australia wide. With the amount of topsoil being washed away it will take a long, long time to recover. Queensland's mines are also underwater. This will affect exports. Unprecedented quantities of rain water are being washed into the sea. The disaster isn't over by a long shot."

"Things are changing so fast, the Queensland Premier is holding press briefings every 2 hours. The rain is extending into New South Wales, with residents of several coastal towns warned to seek higher ground. In developed countries like Australia, we cannot imagine famine or other devastation even when we have natural disasters. While we are accustomed to major bush fires and droughts followed by major floods, we have enjoyed efficient primary production and transport systems so we can rely on fresh food supplies from long distances away. Not any more. Roads are destroyed. Rail lines are gone. Nobody knows the extent of infrastructure damage but we expect it to be severe. World wide, I am watching the birth pangs, especially the destruction of food security. Fires, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, locusts... Truly we need to rely on the LORD because we cannot rely on ourselves anymore. Please pray for Australia and for everywhere else on the planet as we realise how little control we really have over anything. Even so, as Jesus said, it's time to look up!"

From Toowoomba to Brisbane it is 78 miles.

Now for the biblical exhortation about these events. There are consequences for the things we do. Most people accept that. If you speed on the roads, you get a ticket (or are in an accident). If you are late to work every day you will get fired. If you kill someone, you go to jail. If you don't study, you fail the class. On the earth, our choices to take certain actions in employment, legally, educationally, and morally,  have outcomes. But people seem to believe that taking spiritual actions have no consequences. People think that they can die in their sins and that they will go to heaven anyway. They think they can deny God but expect Him to be a friend when you knock on heaven's door. It doesn't work like that.

I've been looking at the ruin Australia is becoming and I wonder what is going on there, spiritually. They have had devastating droughts, biblical plagues of locusts, and now floods that are wrecking everything from industry to infrastructure farming to lives. When I connect the world events to the bible I do it this way: I look at the record of His words and actions (bible) and I see what He has done in the past. Then I look and see what He has promised to do in the future. I draw a mental line and that becomes my benchmark.

In the past, God has always judged for atheism: "For the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: "There is no truth or mercy, Or knowledge of God in the land." (Hosea 4:1)

In the past and in the future, He judges for worshiping false idols: "The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests— Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops; [astrology/Queen of Heaven worship] Those who worship and swear oaths by the LORD, But who also swear by Milcom..." (Zephaniah 4b-5b). This worship on the house-tops individualized the public idolatry; it was a rebellion against God, family by family; a sort of family-prayer of idolatry.

He judges for faithlessness: "Their heart is faithless; Now they must bear their guilt The LORD will break down their altars And destroy their sacred pillars. Surely now they will say, "We have no king, For we do not revere the LORD." (Hosea 10:2).

Note that the LORD was judging a nation for their faithlessness, paganism, and apostasy. Individuals are judged for rejecting God but when that rejection becomes institutionalized as a national governmental decision or becomes so widespread it is effectively an entire nation's outlook, it is another matter entirely. He warns, then He judges. Always.

Australia faced a choice in August 2010. A federal election was held on Saturday, 21 August 2010 for members of the 43rd Parliament of Australia. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard defeated the opposition centre-right Liberal/National Coalition led by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, after Labor formed a minority government with the support of an Australian Greens MP and three independent MPs. They chose Gillard. Gillard is an avowed atheist. When she was sworn in to her office, she refused to place her hand on the bible or utter any oath to God. [Left, Atheist's symbol]  This news excerpt is from last July 2010:

"In endorsing Tony Abbott as his preferred PM, Pastor Nalliah wrote on his website last week: ''Ms Gillard is anti-God, pro-abortion, has no Christian moral values and the list goes on. On the other hand Mr Tony Abbott is openly Christian, pro-life and has very good moral values.''

Australia chose a Prime Minister but they also chose someone to lead the nation who is the embodiment of God-rejection. They chose to reject God as a state and as a nation. If the electors thought that selecting an atheist over a God-fearing man has no effect, they were wrong. This choice has consequences.

This Brisbane Times article asked: "Will atheism spell trouble for Gillard?" Yes. But it spells trouble for the nation, too.

"Ever since Ms Gillard declined to put her hand on the Bible when she was sworn in as PM, Australia's religious and spiritual folk of all persuasions have been praying for, pondering the nature of and, at least in one case, damning her soul. But if Ms Gillard is damned, she will have plenty of company. In the 2006 census, one in five people said they had no religion.

Ms Gillard accepted an invitation from "Melbourne witch and high priestess Lizzy Rose into their magic circle to speak about ''her intentions of where she is taking the country''. Ms Rose says her divinations ''will prove to us whether Julia is going to govern through ego or through her heart space''. Did you know that Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions in Australia?[Left, Wicca pentacle]

Do they not think all this will have a consequence? Lawlessness always has a consequence. You kill someone, you go to jail. Well, paganism, divination, witchcraft, atheism and faithlessness are also lawlessness. God, being the Highest Judge, and Jesus, being given the authority to Judge at God's right hand, will render a verdict! Right now He is warning us in the world, and it seems He is pointedly warning the residents of Australia. Soon He will come to judge the whole world. As devastating as these droughts, locusts, and floods in Oz are, they are a picnic compared to what is coming.

Choices have consequences. Pray that yours will be to choose Jesus! He will forgive you of your law-breaking. He will clean you from the taint of sin. He will enfold you into His kingdom as a full citizen, Priest, and King! He is waiting. He is speaking. Please listen.
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