Blog Four - April 2026

  

The Weather

Writing this blog in the middle of Cyclone Vaianu. At the time of writing it is raining moderately with some gusts of high wind. Ultimately, Rotorua got off lightly with 79mm of rain, a few power outages and tree falls. We had some disagreement in the whanau about how the authorities handled this storm. Did they over react and what constitutes a catastrophic weather event.

There was a bit of angst, but I don’t think that is unexpected given that we have had several strong tropical weather events over the last six months that have brought dangerous amounts of wind and rain to the regions. These storms have caused large amounts of damage, taking lives and leaving an almost continuous aftermath of repair and reconstruction of infrastructure.

You can say what you like, but whether this is human driven climate change or the enactment of Christ Jesus’ words from Matthew Twenty Four. These are not the weather events we used to know. A front would come through and deposit between fifteen and forty millimetres of rainfall. Enough to grow the grass for the next few weeks and keep things ticking over.

Now, we get frequent tropical humidity and the sky seems to drip moisture. Most of the systems that come through are capable of anomalies like tornadoes and frequently dump torrential rain in confined areas causing localised damage in a very unpredictable manner. Whatever, is going on the weather isn’t what it was. The worst part of all this is that it seems to be the new normal.

Iran

Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu have concluded their attacks on Iran for the moment. Many argue about the value of what the action has achieved. As is so often the case pushing an air superiority campaign often has it’s limits. Iran has had a long time to consider what an allied military action would look like and have put together a decentralised control structure and infrastructure that has shown considerable endurance.

If Israeli and American strategists were as godly as many claim they would know that Persia are an actor in the army which comes against Israel in the Tribulation time (Ezekiel 38:5). Therefore, their actions may limit Iran but ultimately only God can eliminate the threat to Israel that they represent.

According to prophecy, America and the two other super powers are removed to facilitate the rise of the Beast Power (Ezekiel 38,39 and Revelation 16:12). Israel are dominated by that power and the abomination of desolation is performed by the Beast in the yet to be built Third Temple. However, God uses a remnant from Israel to take the gospel to the world one last time and then Jesus returns to establish the Kingdom of God (Matthew 24 and Revelation 7).

How the super powers are removed is open to question. I would imagine America is neutralised by the coalition of Russian and Chinese forces probably through nuclear war. Russia I suspect are considerably depleted by the conflict and China are left the conquerors until they are removed without human intervention (Revelation 8: 8-11 and Revelation 9:15).

The Times

We live in a time where Christians who understand something of bible prophecy would be amazed to see the actors described by the prophets moving into position like chess pieces on a the world stage. I find that seeing prophecy in action makes me feel that there is no longer any point in discussing it in articles like this. The evidence is there for all to see as events play out and lead to the conclusion of this age as the prophecies describe. I have wondered whether I should just let it all play out and switch to sharing the gospel instead.

However, there are still things to say and points to be made. For instance, people have strong opinions about our politicians. Mr Trump is an example of this and people seem to love him or hate him. Most have forgotten his first term and see the actions that he is taking now as those of a crazed old man.

My memories of his first term were that he said and did controversial things which led people to either double down and support him or to condemn him outright. His actions did cause division and lead at that time to near civil war. For his second term he had made plans to control this situation.

As soon as he came to power, he mobilised the national guard in Antifa strong hold states to prevent insurrection. In the second term he has seemed to act without any confusion and has taken decisive actions against Venezuela and Iran and also internally with his many executive orders. As he did in his first term he has challenged allies and enemies alike with a narrative that has caused them to think and act in ways that they have not needed to before.

He uses one tactic very effectively which is to call a specific ally, or enemy, out on a certain point and then allow them to contribute to the narrative. The issue is usually resolved by the ally, or enemy, taking a certain action or by them negotiating with Trump and backing down, as in the dialogue over Greenland. He is also very strong in bringing other parties to the table as he has done with the Iran cease fire. In that situation Pakistan has moved to negotiate the military phase of the action to a rapid conclusion.

Whatever, you think about Trump as a person. He is the President of the United States and has won the position twice with large majorities. He is going to leave a legacy and has made some strong points for the immediate future. Europe have been cautioned that it is time to prepare to defend themselves as the United States moves to confront Russia and China by itself. The message here is simple, Europe may not always have the USA there to protect them in the future as war between the super powers may result in the demise of one or more of them.

The Narrative

In our time one of the most used headlines is ‘The Narrative.’ It is the dialogue of our daily news and constitutes the main discourse. The issues that everyone should know about and believe. One example of this is the idea that American presidents are senile, elderly billionaire plutocrats. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump fit into this narrative and it has allowed both the news media, and social media, to attack them without mercy in a way which would not have been tolerated in the past.

In my view this is a very dangerous tool. The narrative has always been there but the powers that control the narrative now have refined its use to specifically control what people think about important issues. Cancel culture has been employed in recent years as our society has been motivated to isolate citizens who express views which do not reflect the opinions of the narrative. The problem is that the narrative is portrayed as the view of the majority but we only have the news media and social media’s opinions to back this claim.

My opinion is that it is important that we do not allow the narrative to control our thinking. We need to find the information and make decisions for ourselves about what we think. It is also necessary to be careful about what we reveal about our decisions on those matters. Save it for the polling booth as it were. I know that in New Zealand that there is a silent majority that keep their opinions to themselves about a good many things.

The Gospel

As a Christian I would simply say that this. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to pay the price for the sins of as many as will believe. Salvation is a matter of faith and the gospel is reflected in a few simple verses: John 3:16; Acts 2:38 and Romans 6:23

The rest is up to you.