The Trumpet Herald

Giving the trumpet a certain sound

April 2010

Earthquake in Chili

Wikipedia sums up the basic information from several sources about the devastating February 27 earthquake in Chile:

The 2010 Chilean earthquake occurred off the coast of the Maule Region of Chile on February 27, 2010, at 03:34 local time (06:34 UTC), rating a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale and lasting about three minutes. The cities experiencing the strongest shaking—VIII (Destructive) on the Mercalli intensity scale—were Talcahuano, Arauco, Lota, Chiguayante, Cañete, Talca, Concepcion, and San Antonio. ... Tsunami warnings were issued in 53 countries, and a tsunami was recorded, with amplitude of up to 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) high, at Valparaíso. President Michelle Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe”. She also confirmed the deaths of at least 723 people, although later reports from Chilean officials reduced the estimated death toll to 279. Many more have been reported missing. ...

This was the strongest earthquake affecting Chile since the magnitude 9.5 1960 Valdivia earthquake (the most energetic earthquake ever recorded in the world), and it is the strongest earthquake worldwide since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. It is tied with the 1906 Ecuador-Colombia and 1833 Sumatra earthquakes as the seventh strongest earthquake ever recorded, five hundred times more forceful than the 7.0 Mw earthquake in Haiti in January of 2010 (“2010 Chile Earthquake,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Chile_earthquake).

Reportedly strong building codes enforced in Chile prevented the scale of humanitarian disaster seen in the recent quake in Haiti.

Inspired commentary

While earthquake monitoring has improved substantially over the years, another strong earthquake so soon after that in Haiti cannot escape notice. We repeat the inspired commentary that we mentioned just last month.

God’s message for the inhabitants of earth today is, “Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” Matthew 24:44. The conditions prevailing in society, and especially in the great cities of the nations, proclaim in thunder tones that the hour of God’s judgment is come and that the end of all things earthly is at hand. We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another—fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed. We are not to be surprised at this time by events both great and decisive; for the angel of mercy cannot remain much longer to shelter the impenitent. (Prophets and Kings, p. 278.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows (Matt. 24:6-8).

Gay Protest Over Communion

Hundreds of Dutch activists have walked out of a Mass in protest at a Roman Catholic policy of denying communion to practising homosexuals.

On this occasion, the church, in 's-Hertogenbosch, had already decided not to serve communion, so the protesters left, shouting and singing.

The dispute began earlier this month when a priest in a nearby town refused communion to an openly gay man.

The Netherlands was the first country to introduce gay marriage in 2001.

Most Dutch people support gay rights, but the Roman Catholic Church teaches that homosexual activity is sinful.

This dispute began during Dutch carnival celebrations earlier in February, when the man chosen to be carnival prince in nearby Reusel was refused communion because of his open homosexuality.

The refusal offended many in the local community.

The Sint-Jan church in the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, also known as Den Bosch, was prepared for the protest and so decided not to give out Holy Communion during Sunday Mass.

Several hundred demonstrators, dressed in pink wigs and clothes, left the church in protest.

The man at the centre of the row has said he just wants equal treatment - if he is regarded as a sinner, he wants the priest to refuse communion to all other sinners too (“Dutch gay protest over communion,” news.bbc.co.uk, Feb. 28, 2010).

It seems that some who perhaps feel condemned by their lifestyle, want to both justify themselves and have justification from others. There is seen a bold defiance of God in the rejection of Bible definitions of sin.

Inspired commentary

There is an appropriate distinction between sinners and repentant sinners.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (Rom. 1:26-28).

Experts on dinosaur demise

An international panel of experts has strongly endorsed evidence that a space impact was behind the mass extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs.

They reached the consensus after conducting the most wide-ranging analysis yet of the evidence.

Writing in Science journal, they rule out alternative theories such as large-scale volcanism. ...

A panel of 41 international experts reviewed 20 years’ worth of research to determine the cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) mass extinction, around 65 million years ago.

The extinction wiped out more than half of all species on the planet, including the dinosaurs, bird-like pterosaurs and large marine reptiles, clearing the way for mammals to become the dominant species on Earth.

Their review of the evidence shows that the extinction was caused by a massive asteroid or comet smashing into Earth at Chicxulub on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula ("Panel confirms dino crater link,” news.bbc.co.uk, Mar. 4, 2010).

Inspired commentary

The God of the Bible is often identified therin as the “Creator.” Much of the “science” of our day either leaves God out (discounting the accuracy of the Scriptures) or is openly hostile to the Bible account.

In this generation there are many whose eyes become dazzled by the glare of human speculations, “science falsely so called;” they discern not the net, and walk into it as readily as if blindfolded. God designed that man’s intellectual powers should be held as a gift from his Maker and should be employed in the service of truth and righteousness; but when pride and ambition are cherished, and men exalt their own theories above the word of God, then intelligence can accomplish greater harm than ignorance. Thus the false science of the present day, which undermines faith in the Bible, will prove as successful in preparing the way for the acceptance of the papacy, with its pleasing forms, as did the withholding of knowledge in opening the way for its aggrandizement in the Dark Ages” (The Great Controversy, p. 573).