Volume 6 Issue 34

Ring of Fire Lights Up With 53 Earthquakes in 24 hour Period

Is something unusual starting to happen to the crust of our planet?  The USGS defines any earthquake of at least magnitude 4.5 as "significant", and there were 53 earthquakes that met that criteria along the Ring of Fire on Sunday alone.  Not too long ago, I wrote about how "Earth changes" seem to be accelerating all over the world, but even I was stunned by the ferocity of the seismic activity that we witnessed over the weekend.  Because none of the earthquakes happened in the United States, the mainstream media almost entirely ignored this story, but that is a huge mistake. The entire west coast of the U.S. falls along the "Ring of Fire", and experts assure us that it is only a matter of time before the seismic tension that is building up along the tectonic plates in that area is released.

Much of the seismic activity on Sunday was near the small island nation of Fiji, and it is true that Fiji often experiences earthquakes because it sits directly inside the Ring of Fire...

Fiji falls in the Pacific Ring Of Fire - a massive horseshoe-shaped area in the Pacific basin. The ring is formed of a string of 452 volcanoes and sites of seismic activity (earthquakes), which encircle the Pacific Ocean. Roughly 90 percent of all earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire, and 75 percent of the world's active volcanoes are dotted along the expansive ring.

It certainly is not unusual to see earthquakes happen along the Ring of Fire, but what was unusual about the activity on Sunday was the size of the earthquakes. The largest quake on Sunday was a massive magnitude 8.2 earthquake that could have done an enormous amount of damage if it had been closer to the surface...

A massive quake of magnitude 8.2 struck in the Pacific Ocean close to Fiji and Tonga on Sunday but it was so deep that it did not cause any damage, authorities in Fiji said. 

The U.S. Tsunami Warning Center also said the quake was too deep to cause a tsunami.

Earthquakes that are that deep are usually not so large.  This "deep focus" earthquake on Sunday was actually the second largest "deep focus" earthquake that has ever been recorded... The USGS calls these "deep focus" earthquakes, and while some of the biggest earthquakes to strike the earth are deep focus, their depth usually minimises damage. 

The biggest deep focus earthquake ever recorded was in 2013 when an M8.3 struck near Russia and was felt all over Asia, giving us a sense of how massive this Fiji quake was.

In addition to this massive earthquake in Fiji, other areas of the south Pacific were also hammered on Sunday as well. You may remember that the Indonesian island of Lombok was shaken by a tremendous quake back on August 5th which killed hundreds of people, and on Sunday they were hit once again.  The following comes from CNN...

A trio of intense earthquakes shook several islands in the South Pacific and Indonesia on Sunday, including two on the already battered island of Lombok. The most recent major quake was a 6.9 magnitude tremor centered just 4 kilometers south of Belanting, on the Indonesian island of Lombok. That island is still trying to recover from the devastating effects of an August 5 earthquake that killed more than 430 people.

But until big earthquakes start happening here, many Americans simply will not pay any attention to all of this.  What they need to understand is that this is truly a global phenomenon that we are witnessing, and shaking in one part of the globe can have tremendous implications for people literally living on the other side of the planet. In particular, those living along the west coast should be deeply alarmed that seismic activity along other areas of the Ring of Fire appears to be intensifying. And I am definitely not the only one saying this.  According to one British news source, scientists are warning that "increased seismic activity" along the Ring of Fire "may mean the so-called 'Big One' killer earthquake is on the way"...

If California was hit, experts warn tens of thousands could be killed.

Sadly, the truth is that we would be extremely fortunate to only have "tens of thousands" killed in the event of a historic earthquake on the west coast. The 1906 and 1989 earthquakes were actually not that big compared to some of the monster quakes that we have seen elsewhere along the Ring of Fire, but they still did tremendous amounts of damage...

Two major earthquakes have hit the Bay Area in modern history. In 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit San Francisco and 80 percent of the city's buildings fell or burnt to the ground, leaving 300,000 people homeless and killing nearly 3,000. In 1989, a 6.9 magnitude quake caused the ground to liquefy in parts of the city and collapsed highways, killing more than 60 people. A new report from the U.S. Geological Survey says that there is more than a 70 percent chance that a 6.7 magnitude or higher earthquake will hit the area in the next 30 years.

We live at a time when our planet is becoming increasingly unstable.  In recent weeks we have witnessed earthquake swarms off of the Oregon coast, record-setting heatwaves, hail the size of softballs, and wildfires of unprecedented size and scope. There are some experts out there that would like to assure all of us that what we are witnessing is completely normal. But I think that not a lot of people are buying that explanation.

Because there has not been a major seismic event on the west coast for decades, many people have grown complacent.  They simply assume that because nothing has happened in such a long time that nothing will happen for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the experts assure us that the "Big One" is definitely coming to the west coast at some point, and all of this seismic activity may be an indication that it is coming sooner rather than later. 

House-Church Members in Iran Reportedly Sentenced to Year in Prison

August 17, 2018 (Morning Star News) – A convert from Islam in Iran said he and 11 other Christians were sentenced to a year in prison for “inclination to the land of Christianity” among other charges, according to Mohabat News. “Interrogations were obviously indicating that they were looking for confession to communications with [those] abroad, especially America, Britain and Israel,” the Christian, identified as PayamKharaman, told Mohabat, which focuses on human rights abuses in Iran. Mohabat reported last week that Kharaman and 11 other members of a church in Bushehr, a port city in southwestern Iran, were sentenced to one year in prison on charges of “propaganda activities against the system and in favor of Zionist Christianity through holding house meetings, evangelism, and invitation to Christianity and inclination to the land of Christianity.”
 
Kharaman and the other Christians were jailed for three years following their arrest on April 7, 2015, obtaining bail only last April, according to Mohabat. Mansour Borji of advocacy group Article 18 reportedly suspects that security agencies’ inability to stop the spread of Christianity in Iran has led them to try to eliminate Farsi-speaking churches “through unlawful pressures and false accusations in revolutionary courts and seemingly legal routes.”
 
“The harassment of religious minorities, particularly Christians, has been mandated for the Islamic Republic’s security apparatuses,” he said, according to Mohabat. “Many Iranian Christians have preferred to abandon their homes in the last two decades and leave Iran to avoid the securities and judges.”  
Three Christians in Iran were arrested from their homes on July 24-25 following the violent arrest of pastorYousefNadarkhani on July 22. Pastor Nadarkhani, a convert from Islam like the others arrested, was awaiting a summons to begin a 10-year prison sentence after his appeal of a conviction for “propagating house churches” and promoting “Zionist Christianity” was upheld in May.
 
Iran is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to change one’s religion. Additionally, Article 23 of the Iranian Constitution states that “the investigation of individuals’ beliefs is forbidden, and no one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief.” The U.S. State Department has designated Iran as a Country of Particular Concern for severe religious freedom violations, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom this month recommended it remain on the list.

Iran ranked 10^th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.

Unleashing the Kingdom: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Movements

Why is Christianity booming in the global South, but seemingly stagnant in the global North? A new fascinating book offers an answer. Dr. Glenn Sunshine is a long-time Fellow at the Colson Center, and he’s that rare sort of historian who sees the sweep of intellectual and cultural history, and then brings it all together in a way that not only explains the past, but advances our understanding of the here and now.

His new book, co-authored with Jerry Trousdale, is called “The Kingdom Unleashed: How Jesus’ 1st-Century Values Are Transforming Thousands of Cultures and Awakening His Church.” In the book, by telling compelling stories of God at work through ordinary people—both today and throughout history—Sunshine and Trousdale counter the prevailing myth that Christianity is in decline around the globe. Take, for example this story from Africa. Hassan, president of a ministry to Muslims, “reached out to one particularly resistant Muslim community that had martyred six Christian evangelists a few years ago.” Hassan saw the community needed a school, so he “approached the Muslim leaders and offered to send a qualified teacher (who was also a trained church planter) if the community provided the necessary resources.”

This practical assistance opened the door to these closed community. In two years, Sunshine and Trousdale describe, seven churches were planted. But there’s more to this story. Some of the local Muslim leaders, upset by the spread of Christianity, hauled Hassan before the Muslim governor of the state. He used the opportunity instead to speak about the grace of God, and how God had helped the ministry provide this community with mobile medical clinics, dentists, safe water programs, seed banks, and schools—all to serve Muslims.

As Sunshine and Trousdale conclude, “Many of the Muslim clerics who had entered that meeting burning to have Hassan deported walked away with his business card or plans for further conversation.” And that’s just one story of what’s happening in the global South. Here are some amazing statistics: In 1900, there were only nine million Christians in all of Africa; by 2000, there were 335 million. In Latin America, there were a mere 50,000 Protestants in 1900; today, there are more than 64 million and most of them since the 1960s. As Glenn told me on the Breakpoint podcast, “The fact is, the church is growing faster than it ever has in human history.” We’re seeing disciple-making movements boom across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. 

The story is not the same, however, in the global North. One reason may be the bifurcated vision of the Kingdom and the Gospel that’s so prevalent in Europe and North America. We tend to focus either on individual salvation or social justice. But since the time of Jesus right up until today, wherever the Gospel has flourished and spread like wildfire, believers were steeped in prayer, and committed to a “full-orbed” vision of the Gospel. That vision includes preparing souls for heaven, but also includes advancing kingdom truth, values and restoration in social structures and institutions. Throughout “The Kingdom Unleashed,” Sunshine offers amazing historical examples of Christians who lived this way. For example, Baptist missionary William Carey sought to save souls in India, but he also introduced libraries, agricultural improvements, hospitals, and schools. Not unlike what we see today with Christians like Hassan in Africa.

Glenn writes frequently at our website BreakPoint.org, and his latest article addresses another malady afflicting the Church in the global North: Secularism. He’s spot on. And while you’re at BreakPoint.org, click on the Breakpoint podcast to hear Glenn describe his new book “The Kingdom Unleashed.” And for a full picture of what God is doing through His Church around the world, get a copy of this powerful book, “The Kingdom Unleashed,” at our online bookstore.