Spoken Word #24

“The Oncoming Storms of Judgment”

Brian Kocourek

May 21st, 2008

 

Luke 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; : 26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.  27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.  29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;  30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.  31 So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.  32 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.  33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.  34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and [so] that day come upon you unawares.  35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

 

Matthew 24:3  And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? 4  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man (1) deceive you.

 

So we see the number one sign of the end-time is deception. We could take a whole message or more just on this end-time attribute, but for the sake of continuity this morning we must put that off. But noticed Jesus warns us here first of all about deception in the end-time. And this warning is followed by an example of how that deception will come. We are warned that this  deception will come in the form of anointed ones who are preaching falsely, proclaiming a Gospel that Paul calls another Gospel, which the word another he used in 2 Corinthians 11 is the Greek word heteros which means of an other nature. And in Galatians he tells us that other Gospel is a perverted Gospel, because it has been altered to make it a super duper gospel.

 

You know this altering is peculiar to the same spirit that is producing gene splicing and producing hybrid crops, and by the way the father of hybridization was a catholic monk, so that shows you where the hybridization spirit comes from. And they teach a hybrid Jesus trying to make him more than God indwelling His Son. So they make the man himself God, and  that is wrong, or false but it is being presented by anointed ones with a genuine Holy Ghost anointing. But they are characterized by their false teaching, preaching a Gospel that has been altered, thus producing a spirit which is not the Holy Spirit.) To save time see 2 Corinthians 11 and Galatians chapter 1.

 

Now, in getting back to Matthew 24:5  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

 

Now, this leads us to the next end-time attribute, which we find inverse 6  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of (2) wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

 

And so we see WW I come and go and then WWII, and then the Korean war, and then the Vietnam war, and then the War in the Middle East which is still ongoing and has been since 1990 in the Dessert Storm. And let’s face it, these are all world wars because the whole world is caught up into them whether they want to be or not. And we see what they call the coalition forces which is none other than many countries coming together to war on smaller countries that do not wish to get in lock step with the rest of the United Nations. And that is the goal of the united Nations as it was with the League of Nations is to bring about a one world government so the Beast and antichrist system can be enforced upon all nations, thus eliminating sovereignty of nations as a thing of the past.

 

Now, the third attribute we find in verse 7 and there shall be (3) famines,(yes, famines as in not enough food to eat and there are ten’s of millions of people in this world today that are starving to death, and if conglomerates like  Con Agra, Cargill and Monsanto who are vying for world domination of the food supply, and especially Monsanto who has been allowed to patent the seeds and now is allowed to patent the genes of Pigs that have been around for several hundre years, and this has the farmers in America and Europe all upset because they do not know aht to do.

 

And Monsanto has been working to get their employees into very powerful positions in the U.S. government such as ex Monsanto lawyer who is now a chief justice on the supreme Court and also people who have headed up the FDA. And our courts have allowed for them to patent the DNA of the seeds, and holding the patents they can suit you if you do not have a contract with them to grow their seed. In fact from what I have seen on the internet, about 130 farmers so far have lost their farms through such lawsuits. What happens is they do not hold a contract with Monsanto, then the neighbor plants his Monsanto seeds, and those seeds pollinate and the pollen is carried by the wind next door to the farmer who is not contracted with Monsanto. The pollen makes contact with his crops and alters the DNA of his crop hybreeding what was a good crop, and then Minsanto comes onto his farm and takes a sample and analyzes it in the lab and sure enough it shows their strains of DNA and they suit the farmer and take all he owns for infringement of patent rights.

  

So you think we are seeing starvation now, just wait after a while when the entire worlds supply of grains are hybridized and owned by these world conglomerates. And you won’t be able to buy or sell without their permission. And they won’t give you their permission if their mother church  has anything to say about it.

 

And then that brings us to attribute number 4. and (4) pestilences, Now, this morning Lord willing I would like to begin looking at the pestilence that is beginning to emerge throughout the world, and I want to being in and tie it back to the Alpha or first exodus to show you what we can expect during this Third Exodus. Because many of the plagues of Egypt are already engulfing populations around the world.

 

And then we have number 5 which we have been seeing more and more over the past few years. Jesus said in Matthew 24: 7, and (5) earthquakes, in divers places.

 

And we have seen several 7.7 and above earthquakes that have totally demolished homes and schools and even churches in South America and China recently. And you can do a Google search on the web for earthquake activity in the past seven days and you will be surprised at all the earthquakes that are hitting the world on a daily basis. I am talking about 100’s per day and very large ones at that. And Jesus said,  8  All these are the beginning of sorrows.  And we know he also said in Luke 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; (and I am told that there is a phenomina called the blood moon that has only occurred several times over the past 2000 years and we are getting ready for one to come here shortly, and there is talk of things happening to the sun, and all these natural changes in the weather are caused by abnormalities in the sun, and Jesus went on to say). and upon the earth distress of nations,(that’s anxieties throughout the nations, and anxiety is caused by worrying about what might happen.) with perplexity(that’s confusion and uncertainty); the sea and the waves roaring;(look at all the hurricanes that have totally destroyed many populated places in Asia, and the title waves or great sunamies that have come ripping up coastal cities and killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving even more homeless and starving. Look at the effect’s it is having on the crops drowning out millions of acreage of fertile land. No wonder Jesus added ) 26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 

 

Then Jesus adds in Matthew 24: and verse 9  Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10  And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

 

 

And at last count we are now into 180 countries with only 10 to go. At least that I am aware of. The Voice of God recordings shows 177 countries they have entered through their work and website, and we now have 180. The UN states there are only 190, so we have 10 to go and all the world will have been introduced to the End-Time Message Doctrine vindicated by the very presence of God Himself having come down with a shout which is the Message.

 

Now, I would like to look at Matthew 24 and Luke 21 this morning and see how these signs are coming about and how the plagues of the First Exodus are all but repeating in this last Omega Exodus which is the Third Exodus of the Pillar of Fire among the people.

 

In Exodus number one, Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrew people leave Egypt. The 10 plagues were a divine demonstration of God’s power and displeasure designed to persuade Pharaoh to "let my people go".

 

 

 

 

 

Brother Branham said,

#34) 126-3 {61} The First Seal 63-0318 He come in the first age, the Ephesian Age, revealed, sent the messenger. Notice what happened as we go along. Here's the plan of it: The first thing happens, there is an announcement in the heavens first. What happened? A Seal is opened. What is that? A mystery is unfolded. See? And when a mystery unfolds, then a trumpet sounds. It declares a war. Or a plague falls, and a church age opened. See? What is the war part? The angel of the Church catches the mystery of God, not fully yet revealed, but when he does, he catches this mystery of God, and then he goes forth to the people (after the mystery has been given to him), goes forth to the people. What does he do out there? He begins to proclaim that message, and what does it start? A war, a spiritual war.

OK, then what happens? Those who believe that message and enter into it, are sealed away and hidden from the plagues or judgment. But those who reject are sent the plagues to destroy them for rejecting The Message for their age. And why does Brother Branham call these plagues a temporary judgment? Because they are just showing what is in store for them at the White throne Judgment.

#35) 126-5 {65} The First Seal 63-0318 And then God takes His messenger with the elect of that age, and lays them away asleep, and then He drops a plague upon them who rejected it: a temporary judgment. And then, after that is over, then he goes on, and they denominate, and bring in denominations, and start off with that man's work like of Wesley and all the rest of them, and then it gets all in a scrapple again; and then another mystery comes forth. Then what happens? Another messenger arrives on earth for a church age. See? Then when he arrives, the trumpet sounds. He declares war. See? And then what happens? Finally then he's caught away. And then when he's laid away, then plague falls destroys them. Spiritual death hits the church and she's gone, that group. Then He goes on to another one. Oh, it's a great plan until it comes to that last angel. Now, he has no certain mystery, but he gathers up all that's been lost in them other ages, all the truths that wasn't truly revealed yet (See?), as the revelation come. Then he reveals those things in his day. If you want to read it, there it is: A Revelations 10:1 to about 4. You'll get it. All right. See?

Notice that Brother Branham speaks of God having a plan...He says... Here's the plan of it: The first thing happens, there is an announcement in the heavens first. What happened? A Seal is opened. What is that? A mystery is unfolded. See? And when a mystery unfolds, then a trumpet sounds. It declares a war. Or a plague falls. Now if there is a plan, then these things are foreknown, right? And if they are foreknown, then God also foreknows those who will receive this Seal, and those who will not, right? Then when the Seal is broken and declared, it seals in one group and seals out all others.

Now, the Plan is this: #1) A Seal is opened, right? That’s number One, and what does a seal being broken do? It allows you to see what was locked up and kept previously from view. Therefore, by Faith we are able to see what God is revealing, because Faith is the first thing, it is the foundation stone. And all that can not receive the revelation for the hour they live are therefore faithless.

#2) When the Seal is broken, It actually allows for us to see and by seeing it seals us in, but by rejecting to look, the others, all others become sealed out. Then what is happening here? One group is locked in and the other is locked out. What would we call this? Separation, right? Let’s see if we’re not right.

59 The Token 64-0208 Likewise, we must remember that God is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. He always sends His signs, His wonders. And then when He gets ready to do anything, He separates the believer from the unbeliever. And notice then how He provided for His promised-land people. Look what He did for His promised-land people there, to be sure that they would not be mixed up in some kind of an ism. What did He do? He sent a prophet to them, Moses, with a message identifying God's Word. And to identify Moses, He sent a Pillar of Fire that hung over him. Amen. Then to give him the perfect assurance, He required a token. Amen. There's a messenger, the message, and the vindication, and the token, the perfect assurance that they had nothing to worry about. No matter how many plagues strike, what everybody else says they are sealed away.

The separation by revelation always begins a warfare, a Spiritual warfare. It always has. In the beginning Michael disputed with Lucifer and then warfare broke out. Then on earth, Cain disputed with Abel. And really, who did He really dispute with? God! Then after the dispute, Cain killed Abel. Warfare! It’s been the same in every age. Look at Jacob and Esau. Revelation received by one and rejected by the other. A dispute, then warfare. Look at Joseph and His Brothers, Revelation received by one, the same revelation rejected by others. A dispute and then warfare. The same in Moses day, Revelation received by one, the same revelation rejected by others. A dispute and then warfare. Daniel’s day, the same. Elijah’s day, the same. David’s day, the same. In fact we find this example entirely throughout the scriptures from Genesis through Revelations. A Revelation, a dispute over that revelation, then warfare. Then what?

#3) Those who are sealed in are protected from the judgments that are to follow, and those who are sealed out, are fitted for destruction. They fit themselves. Notice [Romans 9:22] [What] if God, willing to shew [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: Now, what does this word fitted to destruction mean? The word fitted to is a Greek word which means they are prepared for. If I fit something to something else, then what I am doing is preparing that thing to match the other. Then the judgment matches the judged? Remember, where there is a deep calling there is a deep to respond. Brother Branham said, that there couldn’t have been a fish with a fin until there had been first a water to swim in. Then who prepares them? God made them for destruction. But He has left them with a free moral agency to prepare themselves. And how do they do they prepare themselves for destruction? [Proverbs 14:12] says, There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. They take their own way above God’s way.

E-16 Preparation 53-1111 I believe that the people are in the preparation of the last great destruction this world will ever know. I believe we're at the end. You can speak to people; you could put a Billy Graham in every city in the United States; they'd drink whiskey and smoke cigarettes and laugh at you and everything else just the same. They are in the spirit of the last days. And God cannot send destruction before the people are in the spirit for destruction. God never did destroy anything. Man always destroys himself. The Message Trumpet is declaring, Grace and Mercy for all that would receive it, and to reject Mercy leaves only judgment.

E-14 Planting the Vine and Where to Plant It 59-0920 In the Scriptures, we find that Jambres and Jannes withstood Moses by doing practically the same things he did, by casting down the rod and turning to a serpent. Moses called for plagues, and they could call plagues too. They couldn't heal, because God is the only Healer. But they could cause plagues to come; then Moses took them away.

E-63 5 Junctures of Time 56-0122 We got the impersonators. We got people pretending to be, when they're not. And the Bible said, "As Jambres and Jannes withstood Moses, so will these men of reprobated mind concerning the truth," in the last days at the junction we're at now And there stood Jambres and Jannes when Moses threw down and performed a miracle of God. They impersonated it and done a miracle too with their stick. And Moses called for plagues, and they called plagues. It's the devils turned loose. And notice that they are called reprobates concerning the truth, and they have a reprobate mind, and this is what Paul is also speaking of concerning the wrath of God coming against all the would hold back the truth in unrighteousness which is a wrong understanding.

And as he goes down into Egypt, he took his stick, and cast it down, and healed his hand with leprosy, and done those things, then I want you to notice every time the miraculous was done, Satan's always there to counterfeit it. And as he was counterfeiting it that day, he's still the same counterfeiter today. Even his counterfeits only point to the end time at the junction. He had some old soothsayers and--down there by the name of Jambres and Jannes, who stood up and they could throw their rods down, turn them to serpents and so forth and do just like they did. But God vindicated who was God's. They could bring plagues, but they could not perform Divine healing

Now, this then brings us to another thought. We can see that God has a plan, and in this plan He is to bring forth a Message, and He knows those few who will receive it, because He has ordained for them to receive it. In [Acts 13:48] we read, "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed." [II Timothy 2:19] Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, ( What Seal?) The Lord knoweth them that are his.

Now, God knowing then, who would and who would not believe, He then prepares His Messengers for the task at hand. And each is given a golden vial which contains the wrath of God. So before that angel messenger even shows up to earth, He has been given a vial that has death in it, and yet that death can not touch those with the seal of God. For God has commanded that it not even touch them.

Now, the following are the  Biblical passages concerning the ten plagues upon Egypt.

1. Water to Blood

 

Exodus 7:19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.

 

2. Frogs

Exodus 8:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2  And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: 3  And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:  4  And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.

 

Frogs, Frogs, and More Frogs: Omen to China Earthquake Disaster

 

On May 5th, many Chinese locals noticed thousands of frogs on the move.

 

Text Box:

They were seen traveling without fear of traffic as they crossed streets in mass floods.

 

Many Chinese sensed the migration as a bad omen of a coming natural disaster, but the Chinese government told them that it was just a natural migration for the purpose of propagation. This calmed the people and no one took the omen very seriously.

 

On Monday, 12th of May, at about 2:45pm, central China region recorded a 7.9 magnitude quake which occured near Wenchuan County, Sichuan province, that killed nearly 60,000 people so far that they have been able to count and has left more than 5,000,000 people homeless..

 

Now, it is interesting to note that frogs were one of the plagues in the first exodus and led to other plagues which led to disease and pestilence among the food supply and into the people.

 

 

3. Gnats

 

Exodus 8:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

 

 

Gnat Plague Week in Review  May 23rd, 2008

 

Above waiting fields the sun rose higher each day but on many a farm spring planting had stopped dead. Some farmers tied smudge-fire buckets to their plows, tried to go ahead. Others gave up, herded their livestock into barns, circled them with smudges. Still others, too late, found their horses and mules choked, sucked, poisoned. By the week's end nearly 1,000 horses & mules lay dead in their tracks, and desperate farmers were crying to Red Cross and Government for relief. The deadly clouds were buffalo gnats (simuliidae) so called not because they attack buffaloes but because they have humps on their backs. Broad winged, black or brown bodied, they are less than half the size of a house fly. Commonest in the Mississippi Valley, they are closely related to the black flies which pester humans farther north. Buffalo gnats breed in swift-flowing streams, attaching their wormlike larvae to the downstream side of a large rock or log. After a month or six weeks the larvae spin cocoons, soon emerge full-grown. The first spell of warm weather sends them swarming to fields and barnyards.

 

 

4. Flies

 

Exodus 8:21 Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

 

The Northern Scot

May 24, 2008

 

Plague of flies stokes village fury

By Leanne CarterPublished: 

15 February, 2008A

 

WINGED menace has invaded homes in a coastal village – now the residents want the uninvited guest booted out of their properties for good. Swarms of seaweed flies are leaving both their houses and skin crawling, and there has been no respite from the infestation for three months. Super-strength chemical repellents have failed to kill off the insects, which can even find their way in through closed doors and windows. And, despite the plague, neither environmental health officials nor the Crown estate are willing to deal with the problem.

 

There are so many dead bodies lying about on the window sill that it's like a fly cemetery. It's gone on too long. Something has to be done about it." Mrs Coffield, who lives in Gordon Square, said the sheer number of flies buzzing about in their homes has become intolerable in recent months. She has to run a vacuum cleaner along windowsills and surfaces several times a day to clear up mounds of dead flies, and so do her neighbours." They are everywhere and get into everything. I was making a pan of soup the other day and the flies were falling into the pan in front of me," said Mrs Coffield. "I have to clean up constantly. I even went and bought another vacuum cleaner to keep in the bathroom permanently to save taking the other one out."

 

Chris McGuile, has an electronic zapper and the tray has to be emptied out on a weekly basis because of the sheer volume of flies. The cement floor of an outbuilding on his property is literally crawling with the insects."It's not a problem at the front of the house, but the flies are everywhere at the back of the house," said Mr McGuile."I have white Italian tiles at the back door and when I came back after being away for Christmas, I thought the house had been flooded. But what I thought was thick black mud on the tiles was actually dead flies."

 

5. Livestock Diseased

Exodus 9:3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.

 

Now, this word murrain was translated as such from the Hebrew word deber: The word mur·rain ( mûr“¹n) is a  noun and it means: 1. Any of various highly infectious diseases of cattle, as anthrax. 2. Obsolete A pestilence or dire disease. Could this also be what is called today Mad Cow Disease?

                                                         

The pestilence of the fifth plague is translated as “murrain” which literally means “disease” and was used in medieval times to represent an epidemic proportion disease that afflicted livestock. The people of that era did not have the micro-biology technology to identify specific diseases which explains why they placed all livestock diseases under one heading they called “murrain”. During the 14th century there were major “murrains” in Europe among the cattle and sheep which helped cause the Great Famine of 1315-1317, weakening the population of Europe before the onset of the Black Death or bubonic plague of 1348.

 

Today we have two major diseases among livestock. The first which is FMD  short for Foot and Mouth Disease is a viral infection, and is controlled using various methods such as changing the PH of the animal and administration of disinfectants and strong chlorine to clean suspected infectious areas. The second disease we have today is BSE which stands for Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy and is caused by a prion which is an altered normal protein or a normal protein that has been altered. So the question is who altered the protein. Sound like Gene tampering again. Now, this BSE is commonly called “mad cow” disease, but this is the more severe than FMD because it has crossed over into other species, and is known as scapies in sheep, CWO or chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, and wabbling disease in fish, and CJD or Cruetzfield Jacobs in humans.

 

People get it by eating meat from an animal that had the prion in it. The prions are transferred by the way they process food today, feeding ground up or rendered animals to other animals to increase the protein level of their diet. Well, since that prion was developed by somebody, it is almost indestructible. It will not die at 400 degrees when cooked or boiled etc. It is resistant to UV light, radiation, common disinfectants, and rendering does not inactivate the prion. Some people believe it was developed by our own government in the biological warfare on Long Island, New York. I have no clue, and I’m sure that would be hard to prove, but regardless of how it came it is here, and we must learn to deal with it.

 

FMD causes fever and blisters and boils to the tongue, mouth, lips, gums and other soft tissue on the animals infected. It also causes lameness, salivation and reduced appetite. On the other hand BSE is a progressive degenerative disease of the central nervous system and causes changes in behavior, such as un-coordination, abnormal posture, falling down and difficulty in getting back up.

We see these symptoms on a massive scale in this country and yet the Government will not investigate. I have heard that there are at least 450,000 people misdiagnosed for alzheiners disease that actually have mad cow or Crutzfield Jabcobs disease. I have tried to investigate the similarities in FMD and BSE and have found they both result in an instability of the motor skills and the animal is impaired in their ability to walk.

 

Anyway, we found that in the 1st Exodus there were such disease which were part of the plagues in that hour. 

 

6. Boils 

 

Exodus 9:8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.

 

Now, these boils could have been a result of FMD which is Foot and Mouth Disease. But it usually doesn’t usually occur in humans although any plague sent by God is not a usual thing anyway. But notice the boils were in both humans and animals. So it could have to do with a disease that was in the animal population and because of diet went into the human population. 

 

 

7. Thunder and Hail

Exodus 9:18 Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

 

8. Locusts

 

Exodus 10:4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast: 5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field.

 

 

48: Locust Plague Sweeps Across Africa

May 23, 2008

by Helen Pearson 

 

Swarms of desert locusts rampaged across West Africa this year, stripping crops and crippling countries already hit by food shortages. Unusually rainy weather created perfect conditions for the insects to lay their eggs in damp, sandy soil every two or three months, swelling their numbers tenfold with each new generation. Scientists fear that locusts will keep breeding uncontrollably over the winter and emerge in even greater numbers next spring. “It’s the most serious situation we’ve seen in the last 15 years,” says Keith Cressman, an entomologist at the Rome headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Locust plagues have stricken Africa sporadically for more than 6,000 years. When the insects reach a critical mass, they start gathering together, first forming carpets of immature nymphs and then winged throngs that can span hundreds of square miles. A swarm can blacken the sky, fly as far as 120 miles in one day, and strip a field overnight. The plague this past year followed a circuitous path from Mauritania in the west to Morocco and eventually reached the Mediterranean coasts of Libya and Egypt. Countries are battling the invasion with pesticides sprayed from planes and trucks. But stamping out locusts is tough because the areas to be treated are so vast, and many countries lack the money and equipment. Exactly how much the situation deteriorates will also depend on the weather; the last plague, which began in 1987, ground to a halt in 1989 partly because freak winds gusted swarms out into the Atlantic, as far as the Caribbean.   

 

humanitarian news and analysis

Saturday May 24, 2008

 

WEST AFRICA: Locust plague worsens and spreads to Chad

 

DAKAR, 9 August 2004 (IRIN) - The plague of locusts sweeping south across the Sahara desert is now causing serious crop damage in Mauritania, Mali and Niger and has spread for the first time to Chad, agricultural experts and government officials said on Monday. 

 

Over the weekend, swarms of locusts invaded eastern Mali and started devouring crops, an agricultural official in the central town of Mopti said.  

 

"What I saw yesterday evening around 8 p.m. around Douentza on the way to Gao, was worrying : about four hectares of land was covered with locusts," Cheick Sidiya Diaby, the government's regional director of agriculture in Mopti, told IRIN by telephone. 

 

"Until then, the swarms, which consisted of 600 000 to 700 000 insects per hectare, had mainly been eating trees and grass, but now they have started eating crops too. If nothing is done, the consequences on people and their livestock will be incalculable," he added. 

 

Further east, in Niger, locusts invaded several arable areas in south and centre of the country at the end of last week, causing further damage to grazing land and crops, government locust control officers told the French news agency AFP.

 

 In Mauritania, where millions of locusts descended on the capital Nouakchott last week and devoured the greenery of its trees, lawns and gardens, government officials warned that 80 percent of the country's crops could be destroyed, leaving 600 000 to 800 000 people to face famine.  

 

More than 200 swarms of the flying insects which can eat their own weight of food in a day have so far been detected in Mauritania.  Locust swarms have meanwhile swept east into Chad, carried by winds which aid workers fear will eventually take them into the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan.

 

A Chadian official told IRIN that two swarms were sighted last week at Ati, 450 km east of the capital N’djamena. 

 

“When the swarms flew over Lake Chad, they caused damage to 30 to 60 hectares of food-producing crops, mainly millet and corn”, Ndoubabe Tigaye, the director of the plant protection unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, told IRIN by telephone from N'djamena.  

 

However, despite the intensity of the invasion, all the Sahelian countries are suffering a chronic shortage of insecticide and spraying equipment and vehicles with which to spray the locusts and prevent them from breeding. 

 

Mali has so far raised only one third of the US$3 million requested from donors to step up locust control measures.

 

 “To date, we have been invaded by 63 swarms, but we only have a third of the resources we need to treat the area of nearly 650,000 hectares that is currently infested”, Brahima Koni, the deputy coordinator of Mali's locust control campaign, told IRIN by telephone from Bamako.  

So far, he added, Mali only has 18 spray teams deployed on the ground. 

 

 In Chad, the authorities only have four prospection teams, who have been sent out to search for locust swarms, but without the spraying equipment and pesticides necessary to kill the insects and render their eggs infertile. 

 “We even do not have pesticides”, Ndoubabe complained to IRIN, adding that the Chadian government was about to launch an appeal for international assistance to fight locusts.  

 

At a two-day meeting on locust control in West Africa held in Algiers two weeks ago, Chad appealed for $7 million to treat up to 250,000 hectares. At the time, no locusts had been sighted in the country, but now they have materialized.

 

 In Algiers, government officials from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger and Chad tried to coordinate their strategies. They appealed to the international community for at least $58 million to help step up locust control activities using trucks and planes equipped with insecticide spraying equipment. 

 

The more affluent North African countries, which have had painful first-hand experience of locust plagues in recent months, also promised rapid technical assistance to their poorer southern neighbors in the form of experts, vehicles and pesticides. 

 

On Monday for instance, Morocco sent 50,000 litres of pesticides and two spraying trucks and three crop dusting planes to Mauritania. 

 

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said aid pledged by donors at the Algiers conference was starting to trickle in. 

 

"New contributions are coming in almost every day, but it takes time to translate donor contributions into action," Clive Elliott, an FAO locust expert told IRIN from Rome. "From the moment the funds are approved, we reckon it takes about a month to get the goods on the ground."

 

 "There is a good chance that a lot of the crops can be protected, but if you are asking me whether it is possible to stop the locust cycle in its tracks, it is more difficult," he added. 

 

Meanwhile, local people in the affected countries have resorted to fighting the insect invasion with their bare hands. 

 

In Mali, villagers have formed groups of up to 50 people who gather whenever they see locusts descending on their crops, and try to chase them away with sticks.  

 

When the insects descended on Nouakchott last week, city residents tried in vain to burn rubbish, tyres and dead leaves to create smoke that would drive them away.

 

 In many countries, villagers simply dig holes that they hope recently hatched flightless locusts known as hoppers will fall into. They then burn or drown them. 

 

 But locust experts warned that the worst is still to come.  “In the weeks to come, there will be many more locusts than those that have arrived so far”, Annie Monnard, an FAO locust specialist told IRIN from Rome. 

NW Afghanistan hit by plague of locusts

10 May 2008 11:11:11 GMT

Source: Reuters

 

KABUL, May 10 (Reuters) - Afghan authorities are examining the extent of an unprecedented locust infestation that has prompted local officials in some areas to offer wheat as a reward to residents for killing the insects. Some 300 tonnes of locusts have been killed by people in the northwestern province of Badghis alone in recent weeks, Abdul Ghafar Ahmadi, a senior official from the agriculture ministry, said on Saturday, citing provincial officials. Local officials in Badghis and neighbouring Herat have promised residents 7 kgs (15 lbs) of wheat in return for killing 1 kg of locusts, amid a global surge in food prices that has hit Afghanistan hard, Ahmadi said. "The infestation of locusts has been unprecedented in Afghanistan. It is pretty bad here in Badghis which is also suffering from drought," he told Reuters from Badghis. "I have heard from local officials that residents have killed 300 metric tonnes of locusts." He could not say how many hectares of cultivated land had been destroyed by the infestation, but said a mechanical campaign to kill the insects has been going in several parts of the region, which border Turkmenistan. "This is a regional problem and is not limited only to Afghanistan," he said. (Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin;

Editing by Alex Richardson)

 

WEST AFRICA: Locust plague worsens and spreads to Chad 

 

Photo: FAO The desert locust consumes its own weight in vegetation every dayDAKAR, 9 August 2004 (IRIN) - The plague of locusts sweeping south across the Sahara desert is now causing serious crop damage in Mauritania, Mali and Niger and has spread for the first time to Chad, agricultural experts and government officials said on Monday.  Over the weekend, swarms of locusts invaded eastern Mali and started devouring crops, an agricultural official in the central town of Mopti said.   "What I saw yesterday evening around 8 p.m. around Douentza on the way to Gao, was worrying : about four hectares of land was covered with locusts," Cheick Sidiya Diaby, the government's regional director of agriculture in Mopti, told IRIN by telephone.  "Until then, the swarms, which consisted of 600 000 to 700 000 insects per hectare, had mainly been eating trees and grass, but now they have started eating crops too. If nothing is done, the consequences on people and their livestock will be incalculable," he added.  Further east, in Niger, locusts invaded several arable areas in south and centre of the country at the end of last week, causing further damage to grazing land and crops, government locust control officers told the French news agency AFP.

 

In Mauritania, where millions of locusts descended on the capital Nouakchott last week and devoured the greenery of its trees, lawns and gardens, government officials warned that 80 percent of the country's crops could be destroyed, leaving 600 000 to 800 000 people to face famine.  

 

More than 200 swarms of the flying insects which can eat their own weight of food in a day have so far been detected in Mauritania. 

 

Locust swarms have meanwhile swept east into Chad, carried by winds which aid workers fear will eventually take them into the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan.

 

A Chadian official told IRIN that two swarms were sighted last week at Ati, 450 km east of the capital N’djamena. 

 

“When the swarms flew over Lake Chad, they caused damage to 30 to 60 hectares of food-producing crops, mainly millet and corn”, Ndoubabe Tigaye, the director of the plant protection unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, told IRIN by telephone from N'djamena.  

 

However, despite the intensity of the invasion, all the Sahelian countries are suffering a chronic shortage of insecticide and spraying equipment and vehicles with which to spray the locusts and prevent them from breeding. 

 

Mali has so far raised only one third of the US$3 million requested from donors to step up locust control measures. 

 

“To date, we have been invaded by 63 swarms, but we only have a third of the resources we need to treat the area of nearly 650,000 hectares that is currently infested”, Brahima Koni, the deputy coordinator of Mali's locust control campaign, told IRIN by telephone from Bamako.  

 

So far, he added, Mali only has 18 spray teams deployed on the ground. 

 

In Chad, the authorities only have four prospection teams, who have been sent out to search for locust swarms, but without the spraying equipment and pesticides necessary to kill the insects and render their eggs infertile. 

 

 “We even do not have pesticides”, Ndoubabe complained to IRIN, adding that the Chadian government was about to launch an appeal for international assistance to fight locusts.  

 

At a two-day meeting on locust control in West Africa held in Algiers two weeks ago, Chad appealed for $7 million to treat up to 250,000 hectares. At the time, no locusts had been sighted in the country, but now they have materialised. 

 

In Algiers, government officials from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger and Chad tried to coordinate their strategies. They appealed to the international community for at least $58 million to help step up locust control activities using trucks and planes equipped with insecticide spraying equipment. 

 

The more affluent North African countries, which have had painful first-hand experience of locust plagues in recent months, also promised rapid technical assistance to their poorer southern neighbours in the form of experts, vehicles and pesticides. 

On Monday for instance, Morocco sent 50,000 litres of pesticides and two spraying trucks and three crop dusting planes to Mauritania. 

 

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said aid pledged by donors at the Algiers conference was starting to trickle in. 

 

"New contributions are coming in almost every day, but it takes time to translate donor contributions into action," Clive Elliott, an FAO locust expert told IRIN from Rome. "From the moment the funds are approved, we reckon it takes about a month to get the goods on the ground." 

 

"There is a good chance that a lot of the crops can be protected, but if you are asking me whether it is possible to stop the locust cycle in its tracks, it is more difficult," he added.

 

 Meanwhile, local people in the affected countries have resorted to fighting the insect invasion with their bare hands. 

 

In Mali, villagers have formed groups of up to 50 people who gather whenever they see locusts descending on their crops, and try to chase them away with sticks. 

 

 When the insects descended on Nouakchott last week, city residents tried in vain to burn rubbish, tyres and dead leaves to create smoke that would drive them away.

 

 In many countries, villagers simply dig holes that they hope recently hatched flightless locusts known as hoppers will fall into. They then burn or drown them.  

 

But locust experts warned that the worst is still to come.

 “In the weeks to come, there will be many more locusts than those that have arrived so far”, Annie Monnard, an FAO locust specialist told IRIN from Rome. 

 

9. Darkness

 

Exodus 10:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. 22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days

 

Now, I do not have much to say about the ninth and tenth plague upon Egypt but this. I believe the darkness they saw in the natural is manifested in the spiritual today.

 

Isaiah 60: 2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

 

And in the sermon Shalom 64-0112 P:15 brother Branham reads this scripture and then says,  For, behold,... darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall rise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee."Gross darkness upon the people..." Of this, 'course this is a prophesying of the day that we're now living.

 

Shalom 64-0112 P:27  The prophet said, "Gross darkness upon the people," upon the people of the world at this time. And that's exactly what we've got, gross darkness upon the people.

 

Shalom 64-0112 P:25 Like the Jews was in the days that Jesus came to the earth; Isaiah had prophesied of it and said, "There would be... They would have eyes but couldn't see, and ears and couldn't hear." And that's the reason Jesus prayed their forgiveness, because it had to be that way to fulfill the Scripture. And it's returned again to us. The Bible has spoke of this day that we live, and said these things would come: gross darkness upon the people. And we see it, that there's something that just simply, the people want to but they can't. Nicodemus expressed it one time before the Lord, "Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher come from God, for no man could do the things that You do if God wasn't with Him." But it was that darkness or blindness upon the Jewish race, that the Messiah might come to take from the Gentiles a Bride. They had to reject Him. And that's the gross darkness that's upon the churches and things today, to fail to see the Light that's shining. See? See, there seems to be such a heavy press.

 

Shalom 64-0112 P:44 So many good, sincere people today are caught away in these creeds, these churches and organizations, "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof," as II Timothy, 3rd chapter, says so. Gross darkness, blinding of Israel, was for the lightening of the Gentiles. Now, the blinding of the Gentiles is the lightening of Israel. It's just like the day and night; one side has got darkness, the other side's got light; and then the light comes over on the other side. So the moon passing the way it did, and the reflection of the darkness of the world blinding out its light, is a reflection to us that the Gentile church age is finished. The church is making herself ready, been making herself ready for a time; it's time for the rapture. For darkness is fading upon the Gentiles, and dawn will soon break upon the Jews. The sun has traveled from the east to the west, and we're on the west coast. The Light can only do one thing, go back east, on the other side. You understand, do you? The Light can only go back east again to where it begin at, Israel. God blinded them for a while, but the darkness now is pressed upon the Gentile world that's covered the whole thing. The Gentiles will trod down Jerusalem until the Gentile dispensation will be finished. Jesus said so. And now its finished, gross darkness upon the people, God reflecting it in the skies, as He has shown it on earth before it all happens. We're in it.

 

And remember the Holy Spirit came into the tabernacle and drew on the wall the stages of light and how at the end it would be almost totally without light. As brother Vayle mentioned to me a few weeks ago, it seems that no matter how hard we try to get the Word into the hands of the people, the darker it seems to get out their among the people.   

 

Shalom 64-0119 P:56 Notice, and the hour... Why? Sometimes people who claim and think they're sincere, but a gross darkness has got them in this. The Bible said they would be like that.

 

God providing healing 54-0719E P:60 Why is this world in such darkness? Why is gross darkness upon the people's heart? Why does the Spirit call out constantly, and the Gentiles are shutting their hearts from the message? Why are you, because you are fed well. You're clothed well. Know ye not, these mercies come from God? Do you know the hour is coming when you'll be weeping, and crying, and mourning of these things, when you'll not get them? Awake while time is at hand, and while you can receive God, receive Him. Amen.

 

Shalom 64-0112 P:24 Woman wants to cut off her hair and act like a man. And a man wants to act like a woman. See? And yet you can talk to them, and they're nice people to talk to, nice people, friendly, sociable people. What's caused this? It's that gross darkness upon the people; it's something that's pressed them into it.

 

10. Death of the Firstborn

 

Exodus 11:4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: 11:5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

 

Unveiling of God 64-0614M P:81 They spiritually die now. This is the spiritual veil. See? That was a natural veil. This is spiritual veil. See? They keep walking right on in behind there; you can tell them. "Oh, I know. I know that, but I..." Go ahead; it's all right; it only speaks... You remember, the last plague in Egypt was death, before the exodus. The last plague on earth is spiritual death before the exodus. Then they'll be cremated and turned back to the dust, and the righteous will walk out upon their ashes. But the last thing is spiritual death, rejecting the Word.

 

Speak to this rock 53-1115 P:47 Here it just sweep towards that house, and take death, there it takes death. Then the first thing you know, up over the house they go. "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Yes, sir. The death angel is on today. And let me tell you something; it's sweeping the lands this day. Listen, these churches and things that's having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, You find out they go in there; it's not a natural death; it's a spiritual death. A natural death is not very bad, but a spiritual death, being separated, cut off from God, sinned away their day of grace. Went over and looked out said, "Bunch of holy-rollers, don't pay any attention to that." Devil's in the pulpit, as sure as the world. Certainly.

 

God's chosen place worship 65-0220 P:30 And now, the same is today. There's only one place that spiritual death cannot strike; that's the Word. Death can't strike the Word, because It's a living Word of God. But when you put creeds with It, the Word moves out to Itself. It'll separate like water from oil. You cannot mix it together. Therefore you see, when the creed comes into a denomination, they all go after the creed, and the Word dies out and goes on with somebody else and increases It more, picks up a momentum as It go from justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, and on out into the grain. Do you see the path God has trod, bringing His Name all the time right down the same way, because He is the Word. Notice, It can't die. The Word of Life can't die. Notice how perfect now. The death angel was not forbidden to strike Egypt's great, intellectual people; it wasn't forbidden to strike its sacred lands, its great buildings, its pharaohs, or the priest of the land; the angel was not forbidden to strike. It could strike any building, any place, anybody, but it could not strike where the lamb was. Death cannot strike where this provided place of God is, and that is in the Lamb. Notice, not even was he forbidden to strike Israel, or its Hebrew priests, and any of their denominations. All must be in God's chosen, provided place or death struck.