That movie "Jaws" several years ago must have been a prelude to 2001. Now another boy has suffered shark bite off the Florida coast; this time Virginia Beach on the ocean side. And little ten year old David's life couldn't be saved as the nine year old Jesse's was. It was a leg the shark bit this time instead of that arm which was heroically retrieved by an uncle and reattached for the younger lad in the Gulf. I take this as a metaphor of more than even the dangers that lurk in the ocean. It's a warning to all this nation of judgement at hand as told in Rev.13:1 & 3 says, "I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise out of the sea...and upon his heads the name of blasphemy...and all the world wondered after the beast." Since the oceans are four fifths of earth's surface, could this shark invasion around our resort state portend the appearance of an international demonic power? A UN sponsored meeting in Durbin South, Africa has been underway to combat racism nd Fidel Castro has been the most prominent speaker. Our own Colin Powell chose not to attend because of anti-Israeli proposals that were on the agenda. I heard Rep. John Connier of Michigan critize his fellow black for boycotting the global conference, which is also set o consider reparation payments from European nations to Afrian nations for the damage caused by slavery two centuries ago. As see it, one great evil doesn't justify another. Sure sounds to me like an issue some evil leader could exploit for world wide dominion. By the time this reaches print those seeds may have been sewn.
James Hoffa Jr, head of the Teamsters union, was asked on TV about his fathers disappearance in '75. He replied that he could sympathize with the Levy's since no trace was ever found of his dad, now presumed murdered and disposed of someway. I thought of others in my lifetime who had just vanished: Amy Semple McPhearson who founded a church in California and then vanished; Amelia Earhart who flew around the world in '37 but disappeared in the vast Pacific on the last lap; Adolph Hitler who married his mistress and set fire to their bunker, then shot her and himself trying to burn up and completely disappear. Then in '85 I was in Central America where we heard reports from families whose fathers and husbands had been taken by "death squads" for political reasons. They were never found nor seen again. In contrast to such horror, Gen.5:22 tells joyfully of the first human to vanish. He fathered Methsulah (who lived longer than any) at age 65, then lived for another 300 years: "And Enoch walked with GOD and he was not; for GOD took him." He was a type of the whole church, saints living and resurrected, that will be taken to meet Christ in the air one of these days as terrible times come on this Earth. That's how Christians will vanish into glory at the twinkling of an eye and the sound of the last trump. Hallelujah!