Of particular interest in Figure 30 is the location of the Afar Triangle at the juncture of three rift valleys: the Red Sea, Aden, and African rift cracks in the earth’s crust. This juncture is called a “triple point” in geological jargon. These three large pieces of the earth’s crust (Identified as the African, Arabian, and Somalian Plates in Figure 30) are slowly spreading apart from one another and, in the wake of their movement, are leaving behind a sinking depression in the crust of the earth, a depression identified as the Afar Triangle or Depression. The Afar Depression has not always existed. At one time it was merely a structural weakness in the crust of the earth where converging intersections of faults were made at angles which approached the perpendicular. But a tremendous shaking and upheaval in the earth’s crust at these intersections caused the formation of an active triple point depression at their juncture, and the spreading, particularly northward toward Israel, has been the most active on the Red Sea floor. The geological history of this rift structure, in chronological sequence, is as follows: (1) First the Gulf of Aden begin to rip apart, (2) Then the African Rift began to spread, (3) Then the Red Sea Floor began to actively spread, (4) Then the Gulf of Suez torn apart from the Sinai, and finally, (5) The Gulf of Aqabah (Eilat) torn away from the Arabian Plate. The next section that will rip apart is the land of Israel from Eilat to the intersection of the Plain of Jezreel with the Jordan River Valley, a distance of some 1600 furlongs (185 miles). For a full exposition of this ripping of the Jordan River Valley go back to Birth Pang Numbers 15 and 16, along with all their associated Figures.

At the present time there exists a pattern of normal faults in the Jerusalem area similar to those that led to the initial formation of the Afar Depression. I believe that, when God rips open the Arabah fault northward for 185 miles, the associated shaking and upheaval in the earth’s crust will produce a small Afar like depression on the eastern lee of the Mount of Olives. For want of a better name, I will refer to it as the Zechariah Triangle or Depression. Lord willing, Birth Pang Number 20, Chapter 22, will be devoted to a description of this future depression and its relationship to the cleaving of the Mount of Olives.

[3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. [5] And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. Zechariah 14:3-5.