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The Whole World Is Watching
We like every week to bring what we call a Prophecy Update. We show how news and trends in the world are corroborating centuries-old prophecies found in the Bible.
Michael Jackson’s memorial service was big news this past week. I think it has a prophetic interest for us.
According to the New York Daily News “more than 31 million people tuned in to [live] television coverage of [the] memorial service.” ((http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/michael_jackson/2009/07/08/2009-07-08_michael_jacksons_memorial_2nd_mostwatched_funeral_ever_after_princess_di_say_nie.html)) It was the second most-watched daytime funeral ever measured. Princess Diana’s funeral drew an estimated 33.25 million viewers spread across eight networks on September 6, 1997.
Then there was on-line viewing:
•MSNBC reported nearly 19 million online streams.
•CNN said it had the second largest streaming day in its history, with 10.5 million streams in all and 4.4 million during the memorial service.
•ABC News Digital reported close to six million live streams of the memorial service on abcnews.com and its partner sites.
•Foxnews.com reported 3.4 million streams.
A company called TechCrunch reported the following numbers ((http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/the-world-was-watching-michael-jacksons-memorial-by-the-numbers/)) :
•CNN reported 72 million page views, 10.8 million unique visitors, and 8.9 million live video streams. CNN saw a peak of 781,000 concurrent live streams at its peak.
•Ustream reported 4.6 million total streams, 1.6 million total unique visitors, and 12,000 messages sent per minute.
•Facebook reported that 1 million users posted 733,000 status updates, 759,000 users viewed the broadcast, and 6,000 updates/minute at the peak.
Akamai Technologies, a Massachusetts-based firm that handles 20% of the world’s web traffic, said the Jackson memorial brought the internet’s second largest day ever in terms of total traffic. ((http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/08/michael-jackson-memorial-service-web-traffic))
(The record was set by the Obama inauguration).
On Twitter the ten most popular topics Tuesday afternoon were also all connected to Jackson’s memorial, with the term “Michael Jackson” alone generating 80,000 tweets per hour. ((ibid.))
Others gathered in churches to watch live as a group. ((http://www.scpr.org/news/2009/07/08/michael-jackons-memorial-draws-remote-viewers-las-/))
Of interest to us as students of Bible prophecy is the technology on display. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ we read of a future in which the whole world would be able to watch an event happening live in Jerusalem over a three day period. The coming world leader we know as the antichrist will kill God’s two special witnesses. After he does, we read this:
Revelation 11:8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Revelation 11:9 Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.
Revelation 11:10 And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
Revelation 11:11 Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
Revelation 11:12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.
People all over the earth “will see” these events in real time as they occur.
When in human history has that been possible? Only very recently!
The Bible two thousand years ago predicted the technology we now take for granted.
These are most definitely the last days. The Lord Jesus Christ has promised that at any moment He will come to resurrect the dead in Christ and rapture the living saints off of the earth.
Get ready, stay ready, keep looking up.
Ready or not, Jesus is coming!
