Bible TimeFulfillment: December 11, 2005: Fiery Blast Near London
There was a large blast at an oil refining and storage facility outside London on Sunday morning, local time. The skies over London were darkened as about 5 percent of the stored oil in the UK went up in flames. The event has several prophetic stories and a direct prophetic match to the oil well fires at the end of the first Persian Gulf War. This article explores.
Headlines
On December 7, 2005, there was a report on an Islamic web site calling for the destruction of western oil related facilities. A day later there was a mysterious explosion in a gas compressing facility in Texas, and then 4 days later there was an enormous explosion at Buncefield, outside London.
At this point authorities don't know the cause, and are presuming it to be an accident.
Miraculously, it was Sunday morning around 6:00 AM when the first explosion hit. There was minimal staff on duty and no one was killed.
Prophetic Stories, Psalm 130
Prophetic stories come from 3 different places in the Bible. The most direct is from Psalm 130, which has a replay that hits on Monday evening in London. The following are the relevant verses:
26 Psalms 130:5-6 5קִוִּ֣יתִי יְ֭הוָה קִוְּתָ֣ה נַפְשִׁ֑י וְֽלִדְבָר֥וֹ הוֹחָֽלְתִּי׃ 6נַפְשִׁ֥י לַֽאדֹנָ֑י מִשֹּׁמְרִ֥ים לַ֝בֹּ֗קֶר שֹׁמְרִ֥ים לַבֹּֽקֶר׃ (WLC)
26 Psalms 130:5-6 5I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
6My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.(KJV)
26 Psalms 130:5-6 5I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
6My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.(KJV/NC)
26 Psalms 130:5-6 5I wait for Jehovah, my soul doth wait,
And in his word do I hope.
6My soul waiteth for the Lord(ASV)
26 Psalms 130:5-6 5¶ I trust in the LORD, my soul waits for his word. 6I have waited for the LORD from the morning watch even until the night watch. (LAM)
26 Psalms 130:5-6 5But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. 6I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; (RSV)
26 Psalms 130:5-6 5I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.
6My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.(NIV)
26 Psalms 130:5-6
5I wait for Yahweh.
My soul waits.
I hope in his word.
6My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning;
More than watchmen for the morning.(WEB)
26 Psalms 130:5-6
5I wait for the LORD.
My soul waits.
I hope in his word.
6My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning;
more than watchmen for the morning.(WEB/HNV)
26 Psalms 130:5-6 5I trust in Yahvah, my soul waits for his word. 6I have waited for the Lord from the morning watch even until the night watch. (BRB)
The waiting for "morning" is literally waiting for the sun to appear, which normally happens in the morning. Of course it also happens if you're under a black cloud that blots out the sun. The black clouds over London are thus a direct fulfillment.
It is also curious that the fire fighting crews did not get started until Monday morning, nearly a day after the explosions, as they considered the environmental consequences of fighting the fire. Often it is better environmentally to let the fire burn out. By late Monday they had decided to wait more, since there is risk of further tank explosions at the facility. The prophetic story suggests they will wait out this fire, or at least a major part of it.
Prophetic Stories, Noah's 40th day
The second source of prophetic stories for this even come from the nature of the replay series going on now. The world is replaying the days in Jesus' ministry and in the days after his ascension there was a 5000th anniversary of Noah's flood. The 40th day of Noah's flood replayed December 10, 2005.
There is no specific Bible story at this point, except the rains ending, but there are historical prophetic patterns that apply now.
This same 40th day was marked on the time line in late February, 1991, when the Iraqis had started igniting the oil well fires in Kuwait in preparation for the land invasion that happened about the same time.
Note the similarity. In both cases there is a major oil facility fire, large enough to cause problems in putting them out. They both are known for their large, sun-blocking sooty clouds.
In cases like the the prophetic stories are usually quite similar on the ground. In the case of 1991, it was clearly deliberately set. In the case of Kuwait it was so the oil would not be available to Kuwait to sell.
On December 7, 2005, Ayman Zawahiri ran video on an Islamic web site calling for attacks like this on oil targets. The prophetic stories are the same, so we should expect that this London blast was both deliberately set, and ignited by people from the Arab world.
Prophetic Stories, Revelation
In general, that entire first Persian Gulf War marked an important epoch in world history. The Berlin wall had fallen, reuniting Germany and marking the end of World War II. With the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, a new time of middle east troubles began. Revelation picks up parts of the story in chapter 9, especially the following verses:
66 Revelation 9:2-3 2ܘܤܠܩ ܬܢܢܐ ܡܢ ܒܐܪܐ ܐܝܟ ܬܢܢܐ ܕܐܬܘܢܐ ܪܒܐ ܕܡܫܬܓܪ ܘܚܫܟ ܫܡܫܐ ܘܐܐܪ ܡܢ ܬܢܢܐ ܕܒܐܪܐ ܀ 3ܘܡܢ ܬܢܢܐ ܢܦܩܘ ܩܡܨܐ ܥܠ ܐܪܥܐ ܘܐܬܝܗܒ ܠܗܘܢ ܫܘܠܛܢܐ ܕܐܝܬ ܠܥܩܪܒܐ ܕܐܪܥܐ ܀ (SYP)
66 Revelation 9:2-3 2And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. (KJV)
66 Revelation 9:2-3 2And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. (KJV/NC)
66 Revelation 9:2-3 2And he opened the pit of the abyss; and there went up a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. (ASV)
66 Revelation 9:2-3 2And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit like smoke belching from a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and to them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power. (LAM)
66 Revelation 9:2-3 2he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. 3Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth; (RSV)
66 Revelation 9:2-3 2When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. (NIV)
66 Revelation 9:2-3 2He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit. 3Then out of the smoke came forth locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. (WEB)
66 Revelation 9:2-3 2He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit. 3Then out of the smoke came forth locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. (WEB/HNV)
66 Revelation 9:2-3 2And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit like smoke belching from a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3And out of the smoke came locusts on the earth; and to them was given power like the scorpions of the earth have power. (BRB)
This entire passage sits within a 5 month interval that is a prophetic match to the 5 months of Noah, that themselves replayed in early 1991.
The smoke part of that story was the oil well fires, when western pilots had to navigate through that smoke to attack targets in Iraq. This was also the first time women pilots had flown in combat. All of this is part of the prophecy of Revelation 9.
But, note, that since we're again replaying the same end of 40 days, we have been given a strangely similar event, a large oil facility fire that has caused smoke to block out the sky.
The word "Abyss" was used by Saddam in a political speech before the ground war in the First Persian Gulf War, matching him directly to this story on its first replay. Abyss is also a reference to "bottomless pits" which we today call oil wells. The direct fulfillment was the oil wells in Kuwait on fire.
The black smoke over London is still an interesting prophetic match to events in 1991, even though it does not have the full force of the original prophetic fulfillment.
References
Debka has a short article referencing the December 7 call for such attacks. Read their article here.
There was a pipe line explosion a day later in Texas. Unknown cause, no one reported hurt. Details are here.
And, of course, the London blast has been all over the news. One of several BBC articles is here.
For those with printed charts, the original 1991 series of Noah is on page 66, we're currently, by strange coincidence, looking at events on page 166.
Phil Stone
December 12, 2005, 10:45 AM, Pacific Time
http://bibletime.com/news/log/2005/12/12/London/
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