Podcast # 8: Signs of the Times
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, today’s podcast is the eighth in the series, and is titled “Signs of the Times”. Hello Allan and welcome. So what do you plan to talk about today?
Thanks Scott, it is good to talk to you again. I should start off by mentioning to listeners who may be new to this series, that from time to time I devote a Podcast to events that are happening in the world today, and how they relate to prophecy. I call each of these Podcasts “Signs of the Times”.
As you may recall, in Podcast No 4 you asked me the question: How do we know that the ancient prophecies refer to the present time, and not to sometime in the past, or in the distant future?
My response to this was to detail a litany of facts that show our world is facing a very serious environmental crisis. To highlight this point, I quoted Richard Leakey, the world renowned paleoanthropologist from Kenya.
Leakey has dedicated his life to unearthing the origins of mankind through the study of ancient fossils, and in recent interview he had this to say about climate change.
“If you look at the fossil record, the thing that strikes you is that extinction is the most common phenomena. Extinction is always driven by environmental change, and environmental change is always driven by climate change.”
He then went on to say that the challenge of our times is not whether the cheetah survives or the elephant survives, but whether the human race itself will survive. And this point has been emphasized in a report by the Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that was published recently in the journal “Nature”.
Scott: What did the report have to say?
It said that this year has seen the warmest spring in the United States since record keeping began in 1895. It went on to warn that our planet is approaching a critical tipping point because of climate change and other factors.
The report noted that the average U.S. temperature between March and May of this year was 5.2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the long term average for the whole of the twentieth century. What this means, the report said, is that if present trends continue, then by the year 2070 the average temperature on earth will be higher than it has been at any time since the human species evolved.
But that is not all. The report predicted that climate change will inevitably lead to social change, and that this will have unpredictable results for the whole of humanity. As 22 scientists from five different countries noted in this report:
“Rampant population growth and changes to the environment caused by humans, including the burning of fossil fuels and the conversion of nearly 43% of the planet’s land to farms or cities, threaten to cause an abrupt and unpredictable shift in the global ecosystem.”
The Nature article said that such shifts in weather patterns and human-induced changes could have sudden and unpredictable effects on the global ecosystem, including the collapse of food supplies and other problems.
So what these scientists are saying Scott, is that humanity is challenged today by two colliding forces that threaten our very existence here on earth.
Scott: What sort of forces are they referring to?
Well on the one hand Scott, you have a population explosion that is growing at a faster rate than ever before, and on the other hand you have a planet undergoing a drastic change in climate that is affecting its ability to sustain these people.
As I pointed out in our last discussion, in order to feed and clothe and house the people who are already alive on this planet, we are outstripping earth’s capacity to provide these resources by 50%. In other words, just to meet the needs of the world’s existing population, it takes the planet 1.5 years to restore what humanity uses up in one year.
But each year the population of the earth continues to grow, and this year alone will see an increase of 80 million people, which is equivalent to the current population of Germany.
According to Anthony Barnosky, who is professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California in Berkeley:
“People have become a geological force in their own right, and are changing the planet in ways every bit as dramatic as major geological events. We are becoming much more dominant organisms in Earth by our sheer numbers and the way we use natural resources.”
So I think you can see Scott why scientists say that our present world is in crisis. And of course our problems are multiplied by the new Zeitgeist – or spirit of the age.
Scott: What do you mean by that?
Well Scott, you don’t need to be a student of history to see that a profound change has occurred in society in all regions of the earth. It is as if a new spirit has infused the population of the world. The most dramatic example of this has been the so-called Arab Spring. But this new spirit can also be seen in Western societies as well.
What has happened that is so different from the past is that common people are no longer content to be ruled by autocratic leaders. And young people everywhere are finding the courage to challenge established institutions and government.
This revolutionary movement, instigated as I say by the young, is being felt in all levels of society, and in all parts of the world. We have Arab citizens rising up against their autocratic rulers, and overthrowing them, as they have done in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and are now trying to do in Syria.
There have also been uprisings in different parts of the Middle East, leading to sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in places like Bahrain, Yemen and Iraq. We have seen citizens rising up in opposition to their leaders in traditionally autocratic countries like Russia and China. And this has been rivaled by similar movements in the West.
Scott: Can you give us some examples?
I am thinking here of the democracies of Western Europe as well as in the United States. Probably not many people are aware that in the last eight elections that have taken place in western Europe, in every case the ruling president or ruler has been voted out of office.
What rank and file voters have been saying to their leaders is that they no longer trust their judgment when it comes to the decisions they have been making, and they are using their democratic right to vote them out of power.
It seems equally likely that in the next elections in places like Germany and the United States, this pattern will be repeated. In other words, voters will likely hold Angela Merkel and Barack Obama responsible for all the difficulties they now face, and vote them out of office.
Practically all the democracies of the West now have governments that are either gridlocked by radically opposing parties, or are held together by a razor thin majority in a coalition of power.
And so, given the challenge which the world faces between burgeoning population on the one hand, and shrinking resources on the other, the political standoff between leaders and their followers can only result in widespread social disruption in the coming years.
And when you add to this equation a world undergoing dramatic environmental change, involving more and more extreme climatic events, you hardly need to turn to ancient prophecy to tell that we are facing what Richard Leakey is thinking about when he talks about extinction events.
The world is in trouble Scott, and we no longer trust our leaders to be able to get us out of this mess.
Scott: So what does ancient prophecy have to say about all this?
Ancient prophecy has a lot to say, Scott, as I have pointed out in the pages of my book. Those people who want to know more about this are encouraged to read it, or to refer to my Blog. As I explain on my Blog, “The Last Days of Tolemac” is a book about prophecy. It deals with events that are happening in the world today and shows how they fulfill prophecies that were made many centuries ago.
The book is set out in a series of questions and answers, and explains in detail: • What is about to happen to our planet • Why these events are happening at this time • What places on earth will be affected • What the new world will be like • What we can do to prepare
As the book explains, our world is about to be transformed. We are about to experience “a new heaven and a new earth” where there will be no more suffering and no more pain. However all of us are faced with a choice. Do we wish to inherit the new world that is coming? Or will we fall victim to the catastrophes that will herald its arrival?
What we need to do to survive is explained in the pages of this book. According to these ancient prophecies, our world is facing destruction on a scale that is almost unimaginable, with entire landmasses sinking below the sea, while the earth is wracked by devastating earthquakes and gigantic tidal waves.
Scott: Then it sounds like we are all doomed !
Yes and no, Scott. Some of us are, and some of us aren’t. And that is why the subject of prophecy is so important, and why the decisions that we make today will make the difference between disaster and survival.
As I mentioned earlier, this new Zeitgeist or Spirit of the Age has already begun to infuse people everywhere with the knowledge of what is really happening on the earth. You can see this in the modern phenomenon of “preppers”, or survivalists.
They don’t need Podcasts from people like me to convince them that the world is in peril, and that their lives are at risk. They already know, and they are already taking action. Survivalists (or “preppers” as they are often called today), are people who are actively preparing for emergencies or disruptions of society.
They often have emergency medical supplies, as well as stockpiles of food and water to help them to survive, and keep these in underground shelters and in other types of survival retreats. They even have their own Television series, called “Doomsday Preppers”, broadcast on the National Geographic Channel.
As the Producers of this show point out, it explores the lives of otherwise ordinary Americans who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it. It shows what they are doing to ensure their survival, and their efforts are then rated by experts about their chances of succeeding.
Unfortunately, despite their good intentions, most of the efforts of these Preppers are likely to be doomed to failure, largely because they have ignored the warnings of ancient prophecy.
Scott: What sort of warnings?
The prophets of old warned that those who continued to make the same mistakes that led to the destruction of other ancient societies in the past, would themselves be doomed in similar catastrophes that would happen in the future.
You see Scott, what is about to happen on the earth isn’t new. It has happened before. In fact it has happened many times. Unfortunately, our so-called men and women of wisdom, who are ensconced in the academic world of science and scholarship, have chosen to ignore this ancient truth.
And when, quite unexpectedly, there came a man of profound insight who laid bare the disasters of the past, he was rejected and cast out, as I will explain in my next Podcast, which will be titled “Velikovsky: The Man”
And just a reminder for those people who would like to read my book, it can be reached here
Scott: Thanks Allan. You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast, which will titled “Velikovsky: The Man”.
