THE BOOK
ISAIAH’S “REELING EARTH”
Here, then, is the second closely related “group” of Isaiah’s prophecies that has a critical bearing on our narrative --- and which will ultimately impact on everyone on planet earth in the not-so-distant future. Isaiah 18, Verse 3, (King James) states:
and when He bloweth a trumpet, hear ye’ “All ye inhabitants of the world, AND dwellers on the earth, see ye, when He lifteth up an ensign on the mountains” (Emphases mine.)
In that Scripture we can readily note a clear delineation of two distinctly separate groups having their sphere of activity in two different places not closely connected. It seems perfectly clear that the “inhabitants of the world” are not the same “beings” as the “dwellers on the earth”. This clear separation is further accentuated by the wording of “inhabitants of”, and “dwellers on”, and in the use of the conjunction, and, in the sentence. We can surely conclude that Isaiah might have possessed the spiritual insight to see some of the other inhabitants of Creation aside from just the “dwellers on the earth”. Whether this was so or not does not alter the obvious fact of his sure statement here.
(The explanations of the various Planes of Creation alluded to here will be given in the later Discourse on our Origins.)
Isaiah’s prophecies concerning the future of our world in our time, is indeed stark. From Scripture 24:19-20, (King James):
The “Earth” is utterly broken down, the “Earth” is clean dissolved, the
“Earth” is moved exceedingly.
The “Earth” shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like
a cottage;’
How much of that chilling potential can we attribute to human decisions, societal attitudes and concomitant global activity? Isaiah certainly pulled no punches in identifying why. Bad human decisions will obviously produce bad outcomes, not only for human societies but for the planet as a whole. And that is surely our present legacy and reality. Decisions always = consequences!
So, Isaiah’s Scriptural sequence of 24: 4-6 (KJV. Emphases mine.) not only describes what is already occurring on our tortured earth, but what will inevitably be our thoroughly-deserved outcome.
‘The “Earth” mourns and fades away, the “World” languishes and fades
away, the haughty people of the “Earth” do languish.
The “Earth” also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they
have transgressed the “Laws”, changed the decrees, broken the
everlasting covenant.
Therefore has the curse devoured the “Earth”, and those that dwell therein
are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the “Earth” are burned, and few
men left.’
Fenton’s translation has more ‘punch’ than the King James Bible, and will therefore more closely approximate the frightening power of the event in terms of what we should expect and thus seriously heed. From Isaiah 24:20:
“For windows from on high are opened,
And the earth’s foundations shake!
And the land with crashing
crashes,
And the land with breaches
breaks!
Tottering ground meets ground that totters,
Staggering earth like drunkard staggers,
And flapping, quivers like a tent;
And her crimes are heavy on her,
She will fall, nor rise again!”
What might modern-day scientists and ‘empirical science’ make of the above statements? Except for the relatively few who have broken out of the strait- jacket of ‘empirical intellectualism’ [or intellectual empiricism], most would probably dismiss the whole idea of Bible prophecy -- accurate enough to pinpoint future events of such catastrophic power sufficient to produce a “reeling earth” -- as religious nonsense. Ferrar Fenton’s translation of just one line of Isaiah’s vision (24:20):
| ◼️ | “And the Earth’s foundations shake!” -- |
| ◼️ | Should strike a chord of serious warning for all scientists whose field of ‘expertise’ lies in anything even remotely connected with the Earth. |
So: What does this really mean for earth-scientists? More to the point, perhaps; should scientists take note of such prophecies, or should they be derisively dismissive of them? As we have already stated, what Isaiah was gifted to ‘see’ and give warning for future humanity was the vastly amplified activity of ‘Plate Tectonics’.
When first mooted early last century (1912) by researcher Alfred Wegener, the idea of “drifting plates” was, of course, dismissed by the “scientific establishment” as impossible nonsense, and it was not widely believed until the early 1950’s. Now we all know Plate Tectonics to be “scientific” fact: Surely a perfect example of “The Error of Scientism”. A “reeling Earth” which “shakes its very foundation”? Is this impossible nonsense too? Not now! For this we also now know to be “scientifically feasible”.
Earth-science and global humanity have the quite recent experience of knowing that the whole Earth can actually shake from just one, albeit very large but nevertheless single, earth movement. The devastating and catastrophic experience of the Indian Ocean tsunami, Boxing Day, 2004, has surely shaken any scientific scepticism that such a thing was not possible. So the precedent for Isaiah’s “shaking Earth” has now been experienced by ‘science’ and present-day humanity!
Should we hope that the Great Prophet’s harder vision will not eventuate? Or has human behaviour and activity already proceeded too far past what is acceptable to immutable Creation-Law? If that is so, we will surely experience what is in any case ordained to be; “for they [we] have transgressed the “Laws”, changed the decrees, [and have] broken the everlasting covenant.”
Despite Isaiah’s hard prophecies, those who do ‘make it through’ will “spiritually awaken” to a promised renewed and rejuvenated Earth. Isaiah’s further prophecy of that greater promise fulfilled (65:17) will reveal itself after the ‘removal’ of all that refused to obey “The Law”.
“When New Skies I create and New Earth,
Nor the Old be remembered, or brought up to mind.”
Whilst other Biblical prophets also wrote of “End-time destruction”; in terms of Who actually came to earth to provide the catalytic impetus for the process to be inexorably set in motion in the 20th century, only Isaiah “connects all the dots”, so to speak. The unstoppable process we state –- and now well and truly in motion --- should be self-evident to anyone with access to any form of global news service. The tragedy for the human race is that in order for the almost unbelievable amounts of ‘aspiritual garbage’ that we on earth have produced over millennia to be gotten rid of, the commensurate degree of “Power” to achieve that will be exerted on every single facet of human endeavour. Incrementally at first --- as we are currently experiencing --- but inexorably increasing until all that does not harmonise with The All-Truth ceases to exist. For Truth is the ultimate and thus final benchmark
Having ‘transgressed the “Laws”, changed the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant’ -- Isaiah’s indictment upon us --- the time has finally and quite logically arrived whereby we must now “reap” what we have “long-sown”.
Surprisingly, whilst the Koran does have verses centred on the Day of Judgement or Reckoning that certainly imply hard outcomes for ‘disbelievers’, they don’t really spell out the obvious aspect of the great destruction that the Old Testament Prophets were permitted to see and proclaim would take place. Yet one particular verse does resonate with Isaiah’s “after-vision”.
“On the day when the earth will be changed into a different earth, and the heavens (as well), a and they will come forth to Allah, the One, the Supreme.” (14:48. M.M. Ali).
The text seems simple enough. The earth undergoes a change so massive that it becomes a different earth, and forces the inhabitants to come forth, and finally recognise, accept, the One, the Supreme -- God! That is what Isaiah clearly prophesied. Yet M.M. Ali attempts to place that “projected happening” into an Arabian setting at the time of Muhammad. On verse 48 a he rather grandly opines:
‘The transformation wrought by the Holy Prophet no doubt changed the earth into a different earth and the heaven into a new heaven, The Arabia at the birth of the Prophet was not the Arabia at his death, Beliefs, usages and practices, which had baffled all attempts at reformation for centuries, were swept away, and the ignorant, superstitious and warring tribes had become a single nation, holding aloft the torch of knowledge and civilisation to the whole world. Idolatry was blotted out of existence so completely that no vestige of it could be found among a people who had remained addicted to it for centuries. And that great change must now come over the whole world. But the spiritual resurrection is only an indication of the great day of Resurrection.’
Now, in direct concert with Isaiah’s revelation of Imanuel as The Spirit of Truth, and Islam’s explicit claim to the Koran as the final word of Truth, let’s look at one particularly interesting Koranic verse. Ali’s equally interesting commentary on it seems to indicate the fracturing of the religion of Islam; something that he has elsewhere intimated is not so, and certainly something this writer would not have expected to see, even in commentary about Koranic verses. Remember, reader, the Koran came for the Arabian peoples.
‘And be not like her who unravelling her yarn, disintegrating it into pieces, after she has spun it strongly.a You make your oaths to be means of deceit between you because (one) nation is more numerous than (another) nation.b Allah only tries you by this. And He will certainly make clear to you on the day of Resurrection that wherein you have differed. (16:92).
Let’s hear Ali’s commentary on 92a and 92b and note where b especially resonates with Isaiah effectively predicting our, now, collapsing societies.
‘92a A man who accepts the truth but does not act according to it is likened to a woman who first spins her yarn and then unravels it. This is sheer madness, but this is the very thing of which most people are guilty. They are united by certain ties, but when the union brings about strength, they destroy it with their own hands. It was unity which made the Muslims rise to great power, but that unity today lies in ruins, and the strong community of Islam is like the unravelled yarn of a crazy spinner.’
‘92b Faithfulness to covenants is here stressed and, from the covenant with God, the subject is diverted to the covenants between man and man. Attention is drawn in the words, you make your oaths to be means of deceit between you, to the conditions generally prevailing in the world, to the breach of covenants between nations, which is ruining the stability of human society.’
Surely, students of M.M. Ali, you need only take cognisance of Isaiah’s great warning prophecy: ---
The “Earth” also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the “Laws”, changed the decrees, broken the everlasting covenant.
-- to know that his commentary on the two Koranic verses is clearly true: ”Islam’s unity lies in ruins” and, with all of human society, the ‘everlasting covenant’ with God is broken. Where does that leave Islam? Well, it’s not any kind of a puzzle. It places Islam and 1.5 billion Muslims in the same boat as around 2 billion Christians and the greater majority of the other 3.5 billion “earthlings” “that dwell therein”; --- “desolate, burned; and few men left”.
For the few left, the recognition of Imanuel and His All-Truth will have been the Golden Key to surmounting the prophesied “terrible destruction” required to utterly remove the billions of “actual unbelievers”.