Volume 40 Issue Three March 2021
Last Trumpet Ministries · PO Box 806 · Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Phone: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org
“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” I Cor. 14:8
Extreme Days
“He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly. He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?”
Psalm 147:15-17
“But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, 11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
II Timothy 3:10-11
In recent months the people of the world have faced enormous challenges, which when considered as a whole, suggest that we are living in a period of time unlike any other in history. For nearly a year, we have lived in a pandemic age which has changed the world in remarkable and tragic ways. However, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is just one of many issues that have plagued the world since 2020. Last year, we saw enormous swarms of locusts decimating crops in Africa and other regions of the world. The United States, primarily in the western region, battled about 57,000 wildfires, which scorched more than 10.3 million acres of land. (1) Further complicating matters, a hyperactive hurricane season broke numerous records and gave the world thirty named tropical storms. In total, thirteen of the storms became hurricanes, six of them were considered “major,” and five storms pummeled the state of Louisiana. Ten named storms were formed in the month of September 2020. (2)
When hurricane season finally concluded in November of last year, I could not help but wonder what winter would bring. As a lifelong resident of the state of Wisconsin, I am used to cold temperatures from November to March. It is generally expected that there will be several days in the dead of winter with temperatures well below zero degrees, and that certainly was the case this year. In the month of February 2021, we had twelve days in a row with low temperatures below zero, (3) and on at least two occasions, the temperature with wind chill reached about minus thirty degrees Fahrenheit.
While it is not unusual for Wisconsin to be frigid in the winter, a polar vortex that paid an unwelcome visit to the United States in February 2021 brought the cold to a huge portion of the United States. In fact, on February 16, 2021, seventy-three percent of the mainland United States was covered in snow. This was the highest percentage of snow cover ever reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. (4) Record snowfall was recorded in Salt Lake City, Utah; Detroit, Michigan; and numerous cities in Texas including Austin, Abilene, and San Angelo. (5)
Conditions were especially harsh in Texas, which usually has mild winters. Snow is not unheard of, but large snowstorms and prolonged cold temperatures are not circumstances to which Texans are accustomed. The harsh temperatures caused the power grid in the state to fail, leading to a loss of electricity for at least 3.3 million customers. Considering the average size of American households, Time Magazine estimates that as many as 15 million people were plunged into darkness. (6) To add insult to injury, for some who still had power in their homes and at their businesses, the cost of electricity shot up more than 10,000 percent. Customers all over the state were hit with bills totaling thousands of dollars. For example, one customer saw his utility bill jump by 4,000 dollars in just two days. (7) Another customer was forced to pay 16,752 dollars for his electric bill. (8)
The utility companies in Texas failed to adequately weatherize their equipment for winter, which played a big role in the fiasco that transpired. As bad as it was, it could have been much worse. Speaking of the Texas power grid, Bill Magness, who is president of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, was quoted as saying, “It needed to be addressed immediately. It was seconds and minutes [from possible failure] given the amount of generation that was coming off the system.” Such a catastrophic failure could have left the citizens of Texas without power for months. (9)
As Texas plunged into darkness and the temperature dropped precipitously, shelves at the supermarkets were picked clean and restaurants ran out of food. (10) Water treatment plants failed, too, and nearly half of the state of Texas lost access to clean water. (11) Worst of all was the loss of life. About seventy deaths related to the cold weather in Texas and other states were reported as of February 20, 2021. Many of these deaths were the result of hypothermia, or in some cases, carbon monoxide poisoning. (12)
Without a doubt, we are living in extreme days. One of the dictionary definitions for the word extreme is: “of a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average.” (13) The harsh winter weather that tormented much of this country and especially Texas is another reminder that the current events of our day are not ordinary or normal. The brutally cold weather calls to mind the Scriptures found in Psalm 147:15-17 which declare, “He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly. He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?”
An Infrastructural Collapse
The infrastructural collapse in Texas brought on by harsh winter weather serves as a warning of what could happen to the entire country if the power grid ever stops functioning the way it is supposed to function. Remarkably, a story published in 2014 warns that the United States government was alarmed at the possibility that China could take down the American power grid. Although the media usually portrays former President Donald Trump as being paranoid about China, the story, which was published by the liberal news outlet CNN, was released during the administration of former President Barack Obama. Admiral Michael Rogers, who was the head of the National Security Agency, or NSA, told the United States Congress that he believes China is in the process of perfecting its capability to launch cyber attacks which could cripple American infrastructure and in particular, the power grid. “We see them attempting to steal information on how our systems are configured, the very schematics of most of our control systems, down to engineering level of detail so they can look at where are the vulnerabilities, how are they constructed, how could I get in and defeat them,” Rogers said. He later went on to say, “It is only a matter of the when, not the if, that we are going to see something traumatic.” (14)
It is interesting to note that the United States government took steps in 2020 to remove and eliminate all Chinese-made equipment from the American power grid. (15) A month after this policy was put in place, Forbes Magazine published a story in June 2020 claiming that China has the capability to “melt” the U.S. power grid with an electromagnetic pulse. (16) However, the new American president, Joe Biden, has temporarily suspended this policy for ninety days so that the Secretary of Energy can “take stock of the breadth and scope of implementation actions underway, and jointly consider whether to recommend that a replacement order be issued.” (17) It is possible that the policy could be reversed entirely after the ninety-day review is completed.
The United States water supply is also at risk of cyberattacks. This danger became poignantly clear in February 2021 when a hacker was able to gain access to the computer system at a water treatment plant in the city of Oldsmar, Florida. After breaching the system, the hacker increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, from 100 parts per million to 11,000 parts per million. “This is obviously a significant and potentially dangerous increase. Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, is the main ingredient in liquid drain cleaners,” said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. (18) Thankfully, a staff member noticed the intrusion and was able to lower the level of lye back to normal before any damage was done. This attack occurred on the morning of February 5, 2021, just two days before the Super Bowl was to be played in Tampa, Florida. (19) The city of Oldsmar is located near Tampa, and it is likely that many people were in town at the time in anticipation of the sporting event. Speaking of the attack, Oldsmar Mayor Eric Seidel was quoted as saying, “The important thing is to put everyone on notice and I think that’s really the purpose of today is to make sure that everyone realizes that these bad actors are out there.” (20)
Mixed Signals
Since the very beginning of the Covid pandemic last year, there has been a lot of confusion and mixed signals from scientists and infectious disease experts. For example, during the spring of 2020, we were specifically told not to wear masks. Weeks later, that changed, and even to this day, face coverings are compulsory in many locales. In fact, one of Joe Biden’s first actions as President was to mandate that face coverings be worn in all federal government buildings and on public transportation. More recently, the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, which is responsible for screening passengers at airports, has been authorized to fine those who refuse to wear masks between 250 and 1,500 dollars. (21)
The grueling pandemic and all of the restrictions that come with it have gone on for months and months. When will it end? Anthony Fauci, who is Joe Biden’s top medical adviser, recently stated that he believes Americans will still need to be wearing masks in 2022. (22) Meanwhile, a story published by CNBC on February 12, 2021, warns that a growing number of medical professionals are warning that Covid-19 is going to become an endemic disease that persists for years to come. “The scientific reality is that, with so many people infected worldwide, the virus will continue to mutate,” warned Dr. Jeremy Farrar, who is the director of a London, England, based charitable trust known as Wellcome. (23) David Heymann, who is a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene, also chimed in, stating, “I think if you speak with most epidemiologists and most public health workers, they would say today that they believe this disease will become endemic, at least in the short term, and most likely in the long term.” (24)
Not all experts agree with the bleak predictions, however. Unlike many of his peers, Dr. Marty Makary, who is a surgeon and professor at the highly respected Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, stated in February 2021 that he believes we are nearing the end of the coronavirus pandemic. “There is reason to think the country is racing toward an extremely low level of infection,” Makary wrote in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal. “As more people have been infected, most of whom have mild or no symptoms; there are fewer Americans left to be infected. At the current trajectory, I expect Covid will be mostly gone by April, allowing Americans to resume normal life.” (25) Makary believes that there have been many more mild cases of Covid infections in the United States than the experts usually acknowledge, and as such, the country is close to reaching herd immunity. Herd immunity occurs when enough people have had the disease and now have immune systems that can protect against it, thus leaving the virus with fewer people to infect.
Will Dr. Makary’s prediction prove true? We are now seeing numerous indicators that the Covid pandemic is slowing down. In January 2021, newly reported cases of coronavirus infections topped 300,000 in a single day. By contrast, the reported cases fell to under 100,000 per day by February 7. According to Time Magazine, this downward trend started before a large percentage of the American population had been vaccinated against Covid, which means it is unlikely that the improved numbers are a result of the vaccines. (26) As of this writing on February 26, 2021, the number of new infections reported in the United States has declined for six weeks in a row, with a seven-day average of 72,000 cases per day over the course of the last week. (27)
The number of coronavirus infections have dramatically declined around the world, too. On February 12, 2021, AFP published an article stating that global cases of the disease had fallen by nearly half in just one month. (28) Furthermore, the Associated Press published a story on February 16, 2021, with the headline, “India’s dramatic fall in virus cases leaves experts stumped.” According to the report, case numbers began to drop in September of last year and have fallen from a peak of 100,000 cases per day to about 11,000 cases per day at this present time. (29) These trends are certainly a reason to be hopeful.
Nevertheless, researchers have discovered that about four thousand variants of the novel coronavirus, which causes Covid, exist in the world at this present time. (30) Thus, there is concern that the virus, which is now constantly mutating, could reemerge in the coming months. Only God knows what the future holds.
Two Classes Of People In The Post-Pandemic World
Although trends indicate that the coronavirus pandemic could be starting to fade, the scars of the protracted crisis will persist long after the pandemic ends. In fact, the world may be changed forever. Based on numerous reports which have surfaced in recent weeks, it has become abundantly clear that the people of the world could soon be divided into two categories: those who have been vaccinated against Covid and those who have not. Consider what is now happening in the Israeli State. The Israeli government has been hard at work vaccinating as many people as possible with the ultimate goal of vaccinating every person in the country. Officially, the coronavirus vaccines are not mandatory yet, but those who refuse to get them will face harsh restrictions in the days ahead. Unless something changes, vaccine refusers will be barred from entry at shopping malls, cafes, restaurants, gyms, theaters, and sporting events. (31) Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, who had previously proposed making the vaccine compulsory, is now backing legislation “which will allow employers to prevent the unvaccinated from coming to work.” (32) Even more startling, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion has declared that Muslims living in the Jewish capital city will be unable to attend services at mosques unless they have received the Covid inoculations. (33) How bad could it get? The aforementioned Health Minister Edelstein was quoted as saying, “Whoever doesn’t vaccinate will only go out to supermarkets or pharmacies, while the vaccinated will go to stadiums and gyms.” (34) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to favor compelling Israeli citizens to receive the shots. “Whoever doesn’t vaccinate endangers us all, because they can cause the health system to collapse,” Netanyahu insisted. (35)
Life could soon be quite restrictive for unvaccinated Europeans, too. In January 2021, Ursula von der Leyen, who is President of the European Commission, expressed support for the usage of digital vaccination certificates, which are sometimes referred to as “vaccine passports,” to quickly identify those who have received the Covid shots. She then stated regarding the certificates, “whether that gives a priority or access to certain goods, this is a political and legal decision that has to be discussed on the European level.” (36) This revealing statement hints at the possibility that those who lack proof of vaccination could potentially be restricted from buying or selling certain goods! Christine Wigand, who is a spokesperson for the Commission, confirmed that talks regarding the implementation of digital vaccination certificates had been “discussed at the last European council meeting between heads of state and government and it was concluded that the work on a standardized, interoperable form of proof of vaccination for medical purposes should continue.” (37)
Both Sweden and Denmark are moving full speed ahead to develop digital vaccine passports. “With a digital vaccine certificate, it will be quick and easy to prove a completed vaccination,” said Sweden’s minister for digital development, Anders Ygeman. (38) Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod claims the new technology will be necessary to allow its citizens to travel freely around the world. “We have more than 800,000 jobs in Denmark that are linked to trading with the world so this is fundamental,” he insisted. He then went on to say, “This is fundamental because if we want to start to export again and trading again, see business people meet again, things like the corona passport are fundamental to making that happen.” (39) Lars Ramme Nielsen, who works for Denmark’s Chamber of Commerce, also backs the digital certificates. “If we do nothing, if we sit and wait, nothing will happen. If you start when Covid-19 has left society, it will be too late. With this project we’re very positive we will have a summer of joy, of football, of music,” he opined. (40)
A recent article from Reuters News Service wonders if vaccine passports are really a good idea. The report regarding the technology states that “such tools come with consequences such as potentially excluding whole groups from social participation.” (41) Even some of the folks who are actively developing vaccine passports admit they might be problematic. “I think vaccine certificates raise huge social and political issues. Our job is to provide the technology basis for making vaccine passports and certificates possible… It is not our place to make judgments about whether they are a good idea or not,” said Andrew Bud, who is the chief executive officer at the technology firm known as iProov. (42)
Just how will vaccine passports work? One common proposal is that the record be stored and displayed on a smartphone, which can easily be shown at the entry point of various locations. Yet, it is not difficult to imagine that a person could lose or forget his or her phone. What if the battery dies? It would not surprise me if one day people were offered an implant that would store their proof of vaccination. Could vaccine passports become a precursor to the mark of the beast spoken of in Revelation 13? It is interesting that Sweden is one of the first countries planning to implement a vaccine passport. It was reported by National Public Radio in 2018 that thousands of Swedes have already taken an implantable microchip in their hands. (43)
News reports plainly show there is still a lot of resistance against the shots in the United States. A poll published in February 2021 found that one out of three respondents said they “definitely or probably won’t get the Covid-19 vaccine.” Only 67 percent of respondents said they had gotten the vaccine or were planning to get it in the future. The experts claim that percentage is not high enough to stop the virus. “No, no, no, no, no. You’re going to need to get quite large proportions of the population vaccinated before you see a real effect,” insisted William Hanage of Harvard University. (44) Despite assurances that the vaccines will not be made mandatory, it is abundantly clear that world leaders would love to see a Covid shot plunged into your arm. America’s current President, Joe Biden, has announced that he plans to procure enough doses of the vaccines to inoculate 300 million people by the month of July 2021. (45) As of 2019, there were about 328 million people in the United States. Thus, it seems clear that the Biden Administration is planning to inoculate nearly every American citizen. We should pay attention to what other world leaders are saying, too. On February 14, 2021, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson flatly declared, “There’s no point in vaccinating our populations if we don’t vaccinate everyone.” (46) In a similar fashion, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as saying after a meeting with the Group of Seven, or G7, “I stressed in my intervention that the pandemic is not over until all people in the world have been vaccinated.” (47)
In closing, we can clearly see that the recent events of our day have changed the world. While the American people have long cherished their freedom, we see now that much of that freedom has eroded. It seems to be even worse in other countries where people can no longer move about freely and will be unable to do so unless they receive a vaccine and a digital vaccine passport. Will the United States follow this same path? I cannot say for certain, but it does seem clear that those who refuse to go along with the plans now in play will face at least some restrictions. The Apostle Paul was a man well acquainted with harsh restrictions. In fact, he spent much of his time after his conversion to Christianity bound in chains. He wrote of his persecution in II Timothy 3:10-11. These verses tell us, “But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.” Just as Paul understood, we know that our only hope for deliverance comes from God. Yet, Paul further warned in the subsequent verses that the world was not going to become a better place in the future. Verses 12-13 of II Timothy 3 warn us, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” What should we do? In response to the ever-increasing evil in the world, Paul admonishes us to continue in the faith and to fully embrace God’s Word. II Timothy 3:14-15 advises, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” God’s plan of salvation, which we read of in Scripture, will hold true even to the end. Jesus Christ our Saviour assures us in Matthew 10:22, “... but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” If you have not yet repented of your sins and dedicated your life to God, I urge you to do so now.
Thank you all for your kind support of this ministry. As always, our teams of intercessors are ready to receive your prayer requests, so if you have any needs, whether small or great, you are welcome to send your requests our way. Each request is always given individual attention. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Samuel David Meyer
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Acknowledgments
01. Insurance Information Institute, http://iii.org.
02. NOAA, November 24, 2020, By NOAA, http://noaa.gov.
03. Accuweather, http://accuweather.com.
04. Smithsonian Magazine, February 19, 2021, By Theresa Machemer, http://smithsonianmag.com.
05. Ibid.
06. Time Magazine, February 17, 2021, By Lynn Doan, http://time.com.
07. The Daily Beast, February 18, 2021, By Pilar Melendez, William Bredderman, and Steven Monacelli, http://dailybeast.com.
08. The Raw Story, February 22, 2021, By Common Dreams, http://rawstory.com.
09. The Texas Tribune, February 18, 2021, By Erin Douglas, http://texastribune.org.
10. Bloomberg News, February 19, 2021, By Leslie Patton, http://bloomberg.com.
11. Reuters News Service, February 19, 2021, By Callaghan O’hare, http://reuters.com.
12. The Hill, February 20, 2021, By Celine Castronuovo, http://thehill.com.
13. Dictionary.com, http://dictionary.com/browse/extreme
14. CNN, November 21, 2014, By Jamie Crawford and National Security Producer, http://cnn.com.
15. VOA News, May 9, 2020, By Adam Xu, http://voanews.com
16. Forbes Magazine, June 25, 2021, By James Conca, http://forbes.com.
17. Newsweek Magazine, February 19, 2021, By Lauren Giella, http://newsweek.com.
18. WTSP News, February 8, 2021, By Jillian Olsen, http://wtsp.com.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. The Hill, February 5, 2021, By Cameron Jenkins, http://thehill.com.
22. Reuters News Service, February 21, 2021, By Reuters, http://reuters.com.
23. CNBC, February 12, 2021, By Sam Meredith, http://cnbc.com.
24. Ibid.
25. Mediaite, February 19, 2021, By Joe DePaolo, http://mediaite.com.
26. Time Magazine, February 10, 2021, By Jamie Ducharme, http://time.com.
27. CNN, February 26, 2021, By Eric Levenson, Christine Maxouris, and Theresa Waldrop, http://cnn.com.
28. The Times of Israel, February 12, 2021, By AFP, http://timesofisrael.com.
29. Associated Press, February 16, 2021, By Krutika Pathi and Aniruddha Ghosal, http://apnews.com.
30. Reuters News Service, February 4, 2021, By Reuters, http://reuters.com.
31. All Israel News, February 11, 2021, By Nicole Jansezian, http://allisrael.com.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. The Times of Israel, February 11, 2021, By TOI Staff, http://timesofisrael.com.
35. Ibid.
36. The Guardian, February 4, 2021, By Agence France-Presse, http://theguardian.com.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid.
39. CNN, February 13, 2021, By Nina do Santos, Antonia Mortensen, and Susanna Gargiulo, http://cnn.com.
40. Ibid.
41. Reuters News Service, February 4, 2021, By Natalie Thomas, http://reuters.com.
42. Ibid.
43. National Public Radio, October 22, 2018, By Maddy Savage, http://npr.org.
44. Associated Press, February 10, 2021, By Mike Stobbe and Hannah Fingerhut, http://apnews.com.
45. Associated Press, February 10, 2021, By Zeke Miller and Jonathan Lemire, http://apnews.com.
46. The Hill, February 14, 2021, By John Bowden, http://thehill.com.
47. Reuters News Service, February 19, 2021, By Reuters, http://reuters.com.
To learn more about the history of our ministry and our founder, Pastor David J. Meyer, please visit http://pastormeyer.org.
If you would like to submit a prayer request, you may send email to prayer@ltmmail.org or mail it to our postal address.