Over the last six months in my prayer time I kept receiving the singular word "Constantinople". I'm not much of a history buff or a geography buff, nor am I a biblical scholar. I looked it up in my dictionary and all that it told me was that it was the former name of Istanbul in Turkey. Again in prayer time the word came to me and I decided to do a little more research on it figuring God was trying to tell me something. There was a lot of information on this ancient city. Something that stood out from all the rest of the information was that it was once a Christian city. This city was completely destroyed and plundered. As I read about the destruction I realized this paralleled all the prophetic dreams and words I was getting for the USA. Secondly the ancient city was on a major fault line and earthquakes in the past have killed thousands of people. I'm not sure which of these two things God was trying to tell me. Read what I copied from Wikipedia and decide for yourself. My feeling is that it's all about the destruction of the USA.
-EJ Ouellette
Constantinople |?kän?stantn??p?l|
the former name of Istanbul from ad 330 (when it was given its name by Constantine the Great) until the capture of the city by the Turks in 1453.
The Muslims are by far the largest religious group in Istanbul. Among them, the Sunnis form the most populous sect, while a number of the local Muslims are Alevis. In 2007 there were 2,944 active mosques in Istanbul.
Istanbul is situated near the North Anatolian Fault on the boundary between the African and Eurasian plates. This fault zone, which runs from northern Anatolia to the Sea of Marmara, has been responsible for several deadly earthquakes throughout the city's history. Among the most devastating of these seismic events was the 1509 earthquake, which caused a tsunami that broke over the walls of the city, destroyed over 100 mosques, and killed more than 10,000 people. More recently, in 1999, an earthquake with its epicenter in nearby ?zmit left 17,000 people dead, including 1,000 people in Istanbul's suburbs. Istanbulites remain concerned that an even more catastrophic seismic event may be in Istanbul's near future, as thousands of structures recently built to accommodate the city's rapidly increasing population may not have been constructed properly.[66] Seismologists say the risk of a 7.6-magnitude earthquake striking Istanbul by 2030 is greater than sixty percent.
“For nine centuries,” he goes on, “the great city had been the capital of Christian civilization. It was filled with works of art that had survived from ancient Greece and with the masterpieces of its own exquisite craftsmen. The Venetians, wherever they could, seized treasures and carried them off. But the Frenchmen and Flemings were filled with a lust for destruction: They rushed in a howling mob down the streets and through the houses, snatching up everything that glittered and destroying whatever they could not carry, pausing only to murder or to rape, or to break open the wine-cellars. Neither monasteries nor churches nor libraries were spared. In St Sophia itself, drunken soldiers could be seen tearing down the silken hangings and pulling the silver iconostasis to pieces, while sacred books and icons were trampled under foot. While they drank from the altar-vessels, a prostitute sang a ribald French song on the Patriarch’s throne. Nuns were ravished in their convents. Palaces and hovels alike were wrecked. Wounded women and children lay dying in the streets. For three days the ghastly scenes continued until the huge and beautiful city was a shambles. Even after order was restored, citizens were tortured to make them reveal where the treasures were hidden.
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