News round up: lots of quakes, terrible hatred in China, superbug worries CDC, culture creep

The Chinese and Japanese are still heightening their skirmishes over the Senkaku Islands. The Australian reported today on the Japan vs. China situation--

China-Japan dispute a powder keg, says US
"Territorial dispute over the small Senkaku island chain between Japan and China is a "powder keg", according to the outgoing US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, Kurt Campbell. Mr Campbell linked the dispute to what he described as an increasingly difficult and dangerous environment for Australia, and the need for Canberra to maintain a realistic level of defence spending. "In four years as assistant secretary I've faced many difficult diplomatic situations," Mr Campbell said in an exclusive interview with The Australian, "but none more difficult than this. "I've rarely seen diplomats on both sides (Japan and China) more white-knuckled, and on both sides the sense that no retreat or compromise is possible."

This tense situation has wrought harsh feelings on both sides. This Chinese restaurant posted the following heinous sign:

Incendiary Beijing restaurant sign triggers online fury
"A sign at a Beijing restaurant barring citizens of nations involved in maritime disputes with China - along with dogs - has triggered a wave of online outrage among Vietnamese and Filipinos. The Beijing Snacks restaurant near the Forbidden City, a popular tourist spot, has posted a sign on its door reading "This shop does not receive the Japanese, the Philippines, the Vietnamese and dog(s)." Photographs of the controversial sign have gone viral in Vietnamese-language forums and featured heavily in Philippine newspapers and websites on Wednesday."

We are used to seeing headlines like this one about the Jews: "Turkish Prime Minister says Zionism a "crime against humanity.' " The pile-on of races against races and tribes against tribes is just terrible, but prophetic. Jesus said in His Olivet Discourse that one of the conditions of the Tribulation will be that

"nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places." (Matthew 24:7)

In the Greek, the words for kingdom against kingdom is ethnos against ethnos. Ethnos in the Greek means a race of people and usually refers to the Gentile world. It means a people group sharing a similar culture will be warring with each other.

I think it is interesting that though nations will rise against nations, at the very end, all nations will come together against Jesus. It seems that all Asian nations will unite and march across the Euphrates toward Jerusalem. (Revelation 16:12).

The end of the verse in Titus 3:3 says that people who were unsaved were "hated by others and hating one another." That is how the unregenerate act. But in the last of the last days (in the Tribulation), it will be a true case of the old adage, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." By the time Revelation 16 comes, the entire world (save a remnant of believers) will be enemies of God. (Revelation 16:11).

In other news, there is something fundamentalists have been saying for a long time. We have been saying that since the homosexual lobby is working so hard to normalize their perversion, other sexual situations we take for granted as evil or wrong will also soon be normalized. Polygamy or triad marriages are creeping into the mainstream, for example. But people pooh-poohed the notion that any sane society could or would normalize pedophilia. Yet, it has begun, as this writer clearly points out:

In a piece published on January 25, 2013 in World Magazine: Christian News & Views says, "On Jan. 2 the respectable Guardian published an article, “Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light.” The title choice is more prophetic than intended, calling to mind Isaiah’s “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). Below are excerpts, a case study in journalistic slouching toward Gomorrah."

The article is excellent in the way is parses how the liberals are inching toward normalizing this most heinous act.

There were two 6M+ quakes today, a 6.1 in Vanuatu the and a 6.9 at the Kuril Islands. There has also been a series of quakes in Oklahoma and in Nevada. On the volcano front,

Hundreds of quakes shake villages around smoking Peruvian volcano
"Hundreds of small earthquakes have shaken the earth around the Sabancaya volcano in southern Peru over just a few days and the rumbling, along with plumes of smoke spewing up to 320 feet high, have put officials on alert to evacuate the area. Peru's geological agency Ingemmet recorded some 536 quakes, about 20 an hour, on February 22 and 23 and periodic movement is ongoing."

Geologist Erik Klemetti writes, "Earthquakes and Fumaroles as Unrest Hits Peru’s Sabancaya"
"The fumarolic activity at the summit is especially notable the new steam/gas plume reached over 100 meters over the volcano (although this can also be mitigated by weather conditions) — and closely followed the onset of the new seismicity."

In terms of disease, the following warning by the Centers for Disease Control is kind of worrisome. I have been researching the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and that flu came out of nowhere and infected people at a rapid rate that is unbelievable considering the difficulty of travel and the length of time it took to get anywhere in those days. Just one day, suddenly, a new flu was born and two years later 500 million people were infected and 100 million of them were dead. Here is a news article about a superbug that the CDC is a little jittery about-

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is alerting clinicians of an emerging untreatable multidrug-resistant organism in the United States. There are many forms of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), but of the 37 forms reported in the U.S., 15 have been reported in less than a year. The CDC said the increase in CRE means health care providers need to “act aggressively to prevent the emergence and spread of these unusual CRE organisms.”

The CDC says, "Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are a serious threat to public health. Infections with CRE are difficult to treat and have been associated with mortality rates as high as 40-50%(1). Due to the movement of patients throughout the healthcare system, if CRE are a problem in one facility, then typically they are a problem in other facilities in the region as well."

These are but temporary problems that exist in artificial time on a temporary world. His word never fails and will never pass away. Let us praise Him as David did-

"When I am poor and in heaviness, thine help, O God, shall exalt me. I will praise the Name of God with a song, and magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than a young bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The humble shall see this, and they that seek God shall be glad, and your heart shall live. For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. Let heaven and earth praise him: the seas and all that moveth in them. For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah, that men may dwell there and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein." (Psalm 69:29-36).

I hope you love His name. All His works are wondrous! What a privilege to live in these times.