Month: February 2010

Posted in chile, earthquake, end time, prophecy, revelation, security gate

Raw video of the Chile quake

Posted on by elizabethprata

I post this for a reason. It is a Chilean security camera focused on a gate. The shaking evident as the earthquake in Chile today ramps up, you see just how violent an 8.8 magnitude quake can be.

“And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.” (Revelation 16:18) Revelation describes an earthquake to come that will be so strong that it will exceed every other earthquake that has ever happened. It will be so strong that it fells all the cities of the earth. It will be so strong that every island disappears, likely covered because of the resulting tsunami.

The earthquake that Revelation describes is bigger than the one that hapened today. The strongest earthquake ever recorded occurred in 1960. It was a 9.5 magnitude that struck Chile. It hit off the coast, causing tsunamis over 60 feet high, that traveled as far as Hawaii, Japan, and New Zealand, killing 4,000-5,000 and leaving over 2,000,000 people homeless. The earthquake that Revelation describes will be even BIGGER than the 9.5.

If you are not saved by grace and blood of Jesus, then you may well survive until the end of the Tribulation when this prophesied earthquake hits. I ask you to ponder the violent shaking seen in the video of the 8.8 that occurred last night in Chile, then ponder also if you want to be on the earth when an earthquake occurs that will make the violent shaking in that video seem like a placid pond in comparison. If you do not want to be around, and you have been feeling a little tug in your heart, then that it the Holy Spirit convicting you of your sins. Sins are things you do that are wrong and disrespect God, like lying, stealing, rotten thoughts, anger, and a host of other things. Anyone who has unforgiven sin in their heart cannot be near to God and will forever be banished from His presence upon death, to a place commonly referred to as hell.

But a remedy is available for you. No, you cannot stop sinning, it is in our nature, and only one man has ever lived who never sinned- Jesus. But you can ask Jesus the Spotless One to forgive you of your sins. If you genuinely feel guilt and sorrow over your past actions, and desire to live a more pleasing life to Loving God, then ask Him to forgive you. He will. Then He will send the Holy Spirit to help you resist sin in the future.

I hope the earthquake’s shaking has shaken your very soul and that you accept His offer of forgiveness before it is too late for you or too late in time. For there will be a moment in tine when God, who knows your heart, will see that it is too hardened to accept mercy and will give you over to sin’s consequences. (Rom 1:26; Zech 7:11-12)

Posted in birth pangs, chile, earthquake, end time, prophecy

Every day a new tragedy happens

Posted on by elizabethprata

It’s really excruciating to go to bed now. I know that my sweet slumber will refresh me, but upon awakening each day there seems to be a new and worse tragedy happening than had occurred on the day before. Friday there was a terrible snowstorm/rainstorm that affected over a million New Englanders. They soon were suffering in the cold and the dark with no power as hurricane force winds lashed their homes.

There was also a 7.0 earthquake in Japan near the Ryuku Islands. A tsunami warning was issued. As with any earthquake, there is always fear and panic, especially because of aftershocks. The tsunami warning also added to the fear and uncertainty because beaches were evacuated.

I went to bed and awoke to the news that an 8.8 earthquake had occurred in Chile and that tsunami warning again had been issued. All of the Pacific and all of Asia braced for impact. That’s an entire continent. There are reports of 71/2 foot tall tsunami waves hitting now. Tsunami alerts are out for the whole of the Pacific basin, which means about a quarter of the earth’s population is under risk. Nations cry in anguish at the roaring and the tossing of the seas.(Luke 21:25)

New tragedies are happening every day. Moreover, their scale is increasing. The frequency of record-breaking snowstorms hammering the eastern US has risen to once-in-a-while to one-a-week. Each one was bigger than the last. Each has a more colorful title than the last: such as “Snowmageddon”, and “Snowicane”… The earthquakes in Japan and Chile were massive but also, the aftershocks of the Chile quake were all each as big as massive quakes in themselves. One measured 6.9. And of course, there’s Haiti and the tragedy that recently occurred there.

Here is an interactive graph showing an increase in earthquakes over the last century. Its data ends in 2006 so I wonder what it would look like if information from 2006-now had been included! When the data is arrayed like it is on this graph it is quite startling to see the increase. (Source USGS) (Left, a girl sobs in anguish in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake)

A person queried me on one of my earthquake blog entries on exactly where does it say in the bible that there will be an increase in earthquakes as a sign of the end times. The scriptures do not specifically say there will be an increase in earthquakes in literal language but it does say so in a metaphor. Here is Jesus’ statement in Mark 13:8 – “For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” Jesus never used a metaphor for no reason, and He was making a picture here for the disciples.

Birth pangs, or labor pains, are defined as “One of the repetitive pains occurring in childbirth. Often used in the plural. Also: Difficulty or turmoil associated with a development or transition.” Synonyms are: contraction, throes, struggle, sweat, travail. Birth pangs are an event that is unstoppable, increase in intensity and frequency, and result in a new creation. During the duration of the labor, the mother is in throes, sweats, and travails. When it is over there is peace, and rest.

What we have been witnessing is exactly the pangs that Jesus warned us would come and that He told us to watch for. He said so in Mark 13:37, “What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!'”” and if you have obeyed that command you have seen that the birth pangs are increasing.

God is fully in control and He has always sent weather to show His wrath, or to shake up the people, or to render judgment. He sends snow: Job 37:6 “For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth…” and indeed there was snow in the United States this week. He sends hail. Psalm 105:32: “He gave them hail for rain…”  and indeed there was hail in Egypt this week that caused chaos and killed 4 people. He sends earthquakes. Isaiah 29:6 “Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.”  And all the symptoms the Lord said would occur, including signs from heaven and fearful events, are occurring.

Emotionally, it’s so hard to watch, though. On the one hand, to see the LORD’S power is fearful and awesome. To watch His promises unfold is a blessing, hard as these particular promises are to endure. But also with the increase in intensity and frequency of birth pangs comes heartache and tragedy for people. People we know and love are travailing. People we do not know are weeping in grief. Children lose parents, parents lose children. The unsaved are at increased risk of their fate: eternal separation from God! The terrible times Paul said would come are indeed here. For me, it is a most terrible time knowing that as each end time event occurs, many more unsaved are sent to their eternal destiny. The loss of so many unsaved is a heartache beyond comprehension. I know that for the Lord it is even worse, for “God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3). Unfortunately we know that many still choose to go on the broad way, to their destruction.

Far from the secular view that many have of the Christian, that we are so secure in our eternal destiny (we are) that we feel morally superior to those who must endure the consequences of their choice to reject Jesus (we don’t). Quite the opposite. Claiming His promise of eternal security is so simple, and so available, it deepens our sadness and grief for the lost each time a tragedy like this occurs, because it is so unnecessary. Terrible times indeed.

Christian, please continue praying. Stay strong, appealing to the Holy Spirit to stand us upright. Now is not the time to quail, cower, or quit. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be <sup class="xref" value="(AF)”>blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,” The world needs the light of Jesus now more than ever. Be that light, in prayer and in love.

Peace.

Posted in end time, fire, jesus, picture, prophecy

Man’s house burns, Jesus picture doesn’t

Posted on by elizabethprata

A man’s house burned down, but his picture of Jesus didn’t. Miracle! Otherwise, forensic firefighters would have to explain why all the other combustible things in the room burned, including other pictures, but this paper remained intact inside of 1000 degrees. LOL, Jesus is amazing. “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Mt 28:20

Jesus Picture Is The Only Wall Hanging To Survive Fire
Greensboro, NC — The day after Raymond Kennedy’s home burned down he says a firefighter pulled him inside what use to be his living room and told him to look around. Kennedy’s first response was, “I looked around and said, ‘Everything is destroyed.’ and he said, ‘Look at that picture of Jesus’.”

On an outside wall of the home, right next to the front door hung a paper picture of Jesus Christ. The frame was covered in soot, the glass covering the picture was covered in soot and broken away, but the picture remained intact. Kennedy was shocked when he finally noticed it, “It was extraordinary to me. I mean, I got cold chills on the back of my neck. I was just like, ‘I cannot believe that picture did not burn.’.” Kennedy said he was surprised because all the other photos burned behind the glass before it broke away, “Doesn’t make any sense. A piece of paper in over 1000 degree heat would just disentegrate. All the other ones did. All the other pictures in here, there is nothing left.”

He’s not the only one in awe. Once word spread through his neighborhood, people started stopping by to check it out. “There would be ten people walking around and I was like ‘What are they doing around the house?’. I come up and they were like, ‘You need to call someone about the picture of Jesus in the living room. We’ve walked through your house and everything is completely destroyed. For you to have a picture hanging right beside it that’s completely destroyed, but Jesus is not – that is really special. Jesus was looking over yall’.”

Kennedy is convinced it’s not a coincidence, “When we get another place we’re going to hang it just so we can look at it and know that we was taken care of.”
WFMY News 2

Video at link. Stills below

 
  
 
Posted in antichrist, damp rag, end time, farage, prophecy

The king of damp rag countenance

Posted on by elizabethprata

I listened to an interesting speech (harangue) from Nigel Farage, UK Independent Party. He was speaking at the European Union Parliament building in Brussels yesterday and he had quite a lot to say about the EU’s new President, Herman Van Rompuy, pictured left. Mr Farage is getting press because of the following statement in his minute-and-a-half long speech:

“I don’t want to be rude but, really, you have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk,” Mr Farage said to Mr Van Rompuy.” That sentence is getting all the quoting, and the personal insults by Mr Farage levered against Mr Van Rompuy are getting the attention. However that was not the most interesting part. I transcribed the part most pertinent to prophecy followers below:

Mr Farage said: “We were told that when we had a President we’d see a giant global political figure. The man would be the political leader for 500 million people. The man that would represent all of us on the world stage. The man whose job who was so important, that of course you’re paid more than President Obama. And I’m afraid all we got was you. … The question that I want to ask is who are you? I never heard of you. No one in Europe has ever heard of you. Who voted for you? I know that democracy isn’t popular with you. What mechanism do the peoples of Europe have to remove you? Is this European democracy? … I sense though that you’re competent, capable, and dangerous. I have no doubt that it is your intention to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and of the European nation states. You appear to have a loathing for the very concept of the existence of nation states.”

This is extremely pertinent to the Tribulation times when the antichrist will rise and rule the world. Now, the bible is clear, we will not know who the antichrist is until he is revealed as per Matthew 24:14-16 so there is no use speculating on who he is and whether Mr Van Rompuy is him or not. “Secondly, Mr Van Rompuy is likely not a candidate for antichrist because the scriptures say that the antichrist will have fierce countenance and emit amazing charisma, two things Mr Farage noted were lacking in Mr Rompuy.

However, ponder this. All insults aside, Mr Farage was bellowing against the installation of a man who is crafty, skilled at intrigue, hates democracy, and represents 500 million people. Farage was wondering how a man could be put over half a billion people whom no one really knows, who came out of nowhere, from undiscovered quarters and a nothing country. He was raging against the decision-making process that allowed a crafty unknown to take the world stage as supposed savior on the global political scene.

Nigel Farage’s tirade of insults against the President of the EU was not just immature vitriol you’re reading in the news today. Farage was railing against the installation of a man who represents half a billion people, hates democracy, is skilled and crafty at intrigue, came out of nowhere, whom no one really knows, and wasn’t voted in. This is exactly how the antichrist comes to power.

For all those people who mock the scriptures describing the antichrist, what the scriptures describe has happened. It will happen again. And the next time will be for real. Keep looking up! Our redemption draweth nigh.

Here’s the speech –

Posted in end time, prophecy, snowmageddon

"Snowcane" NY and "snowcane" Europe

Posted on by elizabethprata

Two storms are forming; one for northern US they are calling an “atmospheric monster” –

Northeast braces for superstorm Friday
“The same storm that brought a gentle snowfall across Texas on Tuesday will reach the Northeast in the form of an atmospheric monster with damaging winds, blinding snow, torrential rain, huge waves and flooding.”

And another for Western Europe they are calling a “meteorological bomb” –

Europe braces for destructive winter storm
A large but disorganized extratropical storm located over the middle-Atlantic Ocean is expected to move rapidly eastwards towards Spain over the next two days. As the storm approaches Spain on Friday, it is expected to tap into a cold polar airmass to its north and rapidly intensify into a meteorological “bomb”–a mighty winter cyclone with hurricane force winds. Though sea surface temperatures off the coast of Spain are about 1°C below average, the waters of 12 – 16°C will provide plenty of moisture and energy to the powerful storm, which may end up rivaling last year’s Winter Storm Klaus in intensity. … It is expected to “come ashore over Ireland Sunday morning with a pressure of 956 mb. This is a central pressure typically found in Category 2 hurricanes! … Even so, this weekend’s storm has the potential to be a multi-billion dollar weather disaster for Europe.”

Luke 21:10 – Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.”

Two superstorms at the same time that are not hurricanes but have the power of hurricanes. A potential of multi-billion dollar damage. Coming on the heels of “Snowmageddon 1” and “Snowmageddon 2“. Hmmm… Jesus Christ told us that natural disasters would be one of the signs announcing His return to this earth. Keep looking up! The birth pangs certainly are increasing!

Posted in aliens, end time, prophecy

Aliens are out there, we just can’t comprehend them

Posted on by elizabethprata

This caught my eye in the news media, UPI/ Daily Telegraph –

Aliens are out there, we just can’t comprehend them
LONDON, Feb. 22 (UPI) — The British queen’s astronomer says extraterrestrial aliens “could be staring us in the face” in a form we are simply unable to recognize. Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society science group and astronomer to Queen Elizabeth II, said after hosting the national science academy’s first conference extraterrestrial life in London that humans might not be able to recognize aliens even if they were looking right at them, The Daily Telegraph reported Monday. “They could be staring us in the face and we just don’t recognize them,” he said. “The problem is that we’re looking for something very much like us, assuming that they at least have something like the same mathematics and technology. “I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive. Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there as aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains,” Rees said.

Mr Rees is right. There are aliens out there (extra-terrestrial life) and we can’t comprehend them. There is life that lives off-planet. Angels, demons, and other angels that are so strangely described, we cannot comprehend them. Here is one example, “Then I looked, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of a man. And this was their appearance: they had human form. Each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight and their feet were like a calf’s hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze.” (Ez 8:2)

“Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.” (Dan 10:5-6)

Uh, I think I would be unable to recognize that. Even if it was staring me in the face.

Or these aliens, even stranger and incomprehensible, “Under their wings on their four sides were human hands. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, their wings touched one another; their faces did not turn when they moved, each went straight forward. As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above; each had two touching another being, and two covering their bodies.”

“The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling beryl, and all four of them had the same form, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another. Whenever they moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they moved. As for their rims they were lofty and awesome, and the rims of all four of them were full of eyes round about.”

Mr. Rees is correct when he says: “I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive.” I just read that passage above from Ezekiel 10 and I can’t conceive of what they look like. A gyroscope rimmed with eyes, that floats? Reading Ezekiel 1 and 10’s descriptions of those off-planet dwellers, it is beyond the capacity of my brain to try and comprehend it.

God created life forms that don’t live on this planet, the very definition of aliens. However, the tragedy is, in the search for extra-terrestrial life, so many people fail to think of God’s “aliens.” Compared to His creativity in forming life forms, we are like chimps, unable to understand. It is a tragedy every time a news article reports something about aliens and the point of the article comes so close to the truth…but misses it. Their dwelling place, their form, and their function are so far above us as quantum theory is above a chimp is also accurate.

Do you see how cunningly satan has perverted the truth? Add a little manure to the notion of God’s off-planet dwellers and you have green ET’s instead of the glorious truth.

Posted in end time, mark of thebeast, prophecy

One example of a satan counterfeit

Posted on by elizabethprata

We know that satan is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). He is a counterfeiter, never having created anything himself, but only copying and perverting all God has made. Satan promotes a counterfeit gospel. (2 Cor. 11:3,4), institutes counterfeit ministers (2 Cor. 11:13-15), presents counterfeit doctrine (2 Tim. 4:1, Gal 1:6-7), even has a counterfeit communion table (1 Cor. 10:19-21), has a counterfeit power of lying signs, wonders and miracles (2 Thess. 2:8-10), even promotes a counterfeit messiah (2 Thess. 2:3,4).

Here is another example from Deuteronomy 6:7-8 (NASB) of something satan later copies. God said to His people:

“You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.”

Left, man with phylactery on head and tefillin on arm.

Satan is such a liar he copies God’s instructions on how to remember Him. In so doing, perverts God’s original intent to a corrupt one:

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. Rev 13:16 – And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,” Rev 13:8

Our loving God gave us the grace to follow Him. I sincerely pray you have praised Him for that grace. The best way to see through counterfeit gospels, gods, doctrines, and commandments, are to know the real ones through and through. Read the Bible each day, practice memorizing scriptures. Pray deeply in your walk with the Lord, not just quickie hello prayers or “I want” prayers seeking His hands. Seek His face. You will possess the REAL Spirit, sealed inside you, to take, not the fake mark that leads to destruction in the Lake of Fire.

Posted in atheist billboard, end time, prophecy

Atheist billboard "vandalized"

Posted on by elizabethprata

Atheist billboard vandalized
“SACRAMENTO, Feb. 17 (UPI) — A billboard near Sacramento promoting atheism was vandalized by someone depicting atheists as lost, one of the billboard’s sponsor said. The billboard — one of several posted in the Sacramento area — originally read: “Are you good without God? Millions are.” Someone spray-painted the words “also lost?” beneath “millions are,” CBS13 reported Tuesday. Rachael Harrington of the Sacramento Area Coalition of Reason — which paid to have the billboards put up — said the ads are intended to let atheists and agnostics know they are not alone, the TV station said.”

” “This shows loud and clear just how necessary our message is, because prejudice against people who don’t believe in a god remains very real in America,” Harrington said. The organization has asked Clear Channel, the company that owns the billboard, to file a police report. The company offered to replace the sign free of charge, Harrington told the TV station.” [photo source: KCRA]

Religious identification in US according to Barna, 1.6% of the American population calls themselves atheist. But they are making noise, aren’t they? The bible foretells of the state of things in the latter days, and it isn’t good. Many who do profess fall away from the faith, and others who are not Christian turn to other religions. According to the respected Barna research, “88% of American adults say that “my religious faith is very important in my life” but at the same time “71% say they are “more likely to develop my religious beliefs on my own, rather than to accept an entire set of beliefs that a particular church teaches.” Thanks to satan’s influence, men now think they are their own gods. (“That they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” Jude 1:18). Jesus says in Luke 18:8 – “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

There are many groups these days who represent a small minority, who are making a lot of noise for their size. Abortion rights activists, homosexual activists, alternative marriage activists, separation of church and state activists (ACLU), atheist activists. These people work hard for their beliefs. They spend money, give time, speak loudly, travel from place to place proclaiming their message. They invest their own personal energy into these causes, sometimes their entire lifetime. In any other case their diligence would be admirable.

Richard Dawkins comes to mind. The British atheist has spent a lifetime speaking on behalf of satan. (“He who is not with Me is against Me.” Mt 12:30). He has spent enormous amounts of money in the atheist cause. He opened a summer camp for children to groom atheists ( “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.” Luke 17:2), he has written books, presented documentaries, in effect, spending decades of energy speaking against the existence of God. [Image AFP/Getty Image]

Sylvia Rae Rivera (born a man) was the “Rosa Parks of the modern transgender and homosexual movement.” After the Stonewall gay riots of 1969 she and a few others founded the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. S/he promoted the drag queen culture all her/his life. Even after battling substance abuse, recovering from a suicide attempt, and living with liver cancer, at the end of his/her life s/he renewed her political activity, giving many speeches concerning the Stonewall Riots and the necessity for unity among transgender people to fight for their historic legacy as people in the forefront of the LGBT movement. She traveled to Italy for the Millennium March in 2000 where she was acclaimed as the Mother of all gay people. She died of liver cancer in 2002. H/she fought for gay rights from 1969 to his death in 2002. (“In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” Romans 1:27) A misspent life.

Jacob M. Appel is an American bio-ethicist who is a pro-abortion spokesman. Appel has argued in favor of abortion rights, assisted suicide (not only for the terminally ill, but also for those suffering from long-term mental illness), and fertility treatment for homosexuals. He is founder of the campaign “It’s Time for an Abortion Pride Movement.” Appel is quoted as saying “I dream of the day when women are not afraid to walk the streets with pins reading, “I had an abortion and it was the right decision,” and when station wagons bear bumper-stickers announcing, “Thank me for having an abortion when I wasn’t ready to be a parent.” (“But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace, was pleased.” Galatians 1:15)

The Dawkins’s, Riveras, and Appels if the world are fighting for evil. They do not know it.  I am as human as any person. I do get riled up when Elton John says that Jesus was gay. I do get upset at the thought of millions of babies destroyed. I am sickened when confronted with people who traverse gender lines and bespeak unnatural lusts. As God lifts His restraining hand on the world in this time until the rapture, we will be confronted with all that and worse. But Jude 1:22-23 says “And have mercy on some, who are doubting;
save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.” The question is, how does one do that in the practicality? Here’s one way:

All those folks who fought for the evils the bible defines, will come face to face with Sovereign Glory and immediately know that they completely wasted their life. They will know within a blink of an eye that their efforts were depraved and destructive. They will comprehend that the time, energy, money, dedication to causes were completely wrong. Even if they repent and spend a lifetime in glory (Pray for that!) they will have to account for all their words and actions. Their work that they so treasured here on earth, will be burned before their eyes. For the ones who do not repent, they will mourn in spiritual pain at the feet of Jesus and His throne, keen over their fruitless empty life. And then, eternity for them will begin in hell, never to end. How can one not have mercy on those? Even when their angry words are flung at us personally? Even when their speeches inflame and hurt? Even when their actions maim and kill the soul of many? Mercy! As the person who wrote on the atheist billboard tried to show. Mercy! Millions might be good without God” but they are also lost. Those are the ones upon whom the most mercy should be heaped.

Posted in end time, prophecy

We are a Christian Nation

Posted on by elizabethprata

At the beginning of each session of the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest court in the highest land on earth, the marshal of the Court (Court Crier) announces: “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting. God save the United States and this Honorable Court!“

Just thought you’d like to know…

Posted in end time, prophecy, wayside cross

The cross in public life

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Wayside Cross is a huge tradition in Canada and Europe, where it has abounded for over a thousand years. “In Quebec, and Europe, a wayside cross marks a place where the members of a community gather to meet and pray, and often commemorates an important moment in their communal history.” Charles Bourget reports that there are 3000 wayside shrines dotting the countryside in Quebec, however, many of them are falling into disrepair because the tradition is waning. I wrote yesterday about the fate of one American Wayside Cross in East Greenwich RI.

Below, a wayside cross in Europe
In America, the tradition never really caught on. They are seen occasionally, especially in central rural Wisconsin. Wayside crosses dot the landscape there. In Bedford NY, one was erected in 1936 and it was hoped that the sight of it would invite the prayers of the passersby. In 1922 East Greenwich, it was hoped by “those who placed this beautiful memorial to an exemplary life feel that it will indeed be a light by the way and a guide post to Heaven.” By and large wayside crosses are not seen much and those that do exist are under increasing challenge.

The point of the cross in public life is that it would point the way to Jesus. That upon seeing it, thoughts of Him and the Good News would ruminate in the mind, and through the strength of the Holy Spirit, those thoughts would germinate. For people seeing such displays, who have already heard the Good News, perhaps its sight would loosen the bonds around the heartstrings and their conviction would grow, as in the allegorical depiction of Christian at the Wayside Cross.

A wayside cross was a pivotal point in the very famous book Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, published in 1678 and has remained on the ‘bestseller list’ ever since, never having been out of print. The passage is below:

“He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said, with a merry heart, ‘He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.’ Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him, that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. Now, as he stood looking and weeping, behold three Shining Ones came to him and saluted him with Peace be unto thee. So the first said to him, Thy sins be forgiven thee;”

It is amazing that the sight of the cross should ease a person’s burdens, but it does, for the person who is ready to receive grace. For every individual on the planet, there comes that critical moment, upon which the eye falls to the cross and a decision is made either aye or nay. The cross to the unsaved does make one’s soul burn, satan would have it so. But in the process of that the soul-singe the cross is emblazoned on the mind and heart and soul, thereafter to linger as a brand. It stays there, to rankle. Opponents of Christ do not want that rankle, and therefore strive to remove the cross from all areas of life except homes and churches. The right to display the cross in public life is waning. One cannot even wear a cross around one’s neck in Britain, anymore.

British Airways check-in worker Nadia Eweida has lost her appeal against a previous court ruling upholding the airline’s decision to ban her from wearing a cross necklace with her uniform at work. Ms Eweida was dismissed without pay in 2006 when she refused to cover up her cross necklace behind her neck scarf. She argued before the Employment Tribunal in 2008 that she should be allowed to wear her necklace because Muslim and Hindu employees were permitted to wear headscarves and turbans but the Tribunal ruled in favour of BA. Lord Justice Sedley upheld the Employment Appeal Tribunal’s November 2008 ruling determining that the airline’s ban did not constitute religious discrimination.

Christian nurse removed from frontline duty for wearing cross necklace
A Christian nurse was taken off frontline duties after she refused to take off a necklace bearing a cross. Shirley Chaplin said she believed The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust Hospital was trying to prevent her from expressing religious beliefs. But the trust said the policy had nothing to do with the crucifix specifically, and was motivated by health and safety concerns about patients grabbing necklaces. Mrs Chaplin, 54, from Exeter, said: ‘For about 30 years I have worked in the NHS and nursed patients day and night and on no occasion has my cross caused me or anyone else any injury – and to my knowledge, no patient has ever complained about me wearing it. The Trust said necklaces of all kinds were banned but admitted there may have been ‘lapses’.

That’s Europe, you say. It could not happen in America. Sure it can. This month in Missouri, FedEx suspended a worker on grounds that her cross violated a dress code against wearing of personal insignias.

The public crosses I saw during the course of my life affected me and were sure steppingstones on my path to the Lord. I mentioned the initial event that started me thinking about the public life of the cross in yesterday’s post, the RI Wayside Cross that stood at the intersection of my street. I saw that cross a lot growing up. Each time I did, I exhibited varying amounts of offense at varying times until I moved far away to a godless state and never no more was troubled by public displays of the cross.

The public crosses that stand alongside roads, hang round our necks as jewelry, appear on cars and trucks and shipgoing vessels, all penetrate the web of dark sin in which the the unsaved labor. If we see through a glass darkly, they see not at all, and the cross is the only light that can and will penetrate that darkness.

Brother and Sister, if you own a cross as a tie clip or jewelry, wear it. If you should be of a mind, erect one at the edge of your lawn. Do not let the Christian cross become a fading symbol here in the United States. “There was a time in Pakistan when it was common to see cross pendants around the necks of people on the streets. But now, that sight has been reduced to a rare glimpse in Karachi’s Bohri Bazaar, only when Christmas is around the corner. The decreasing visibility of the cross here underscores the challenges the Christian community is facing.”

The visibility of the cross is decreasing in America too. Don’t let it. The cross was a public declaration that God’s righteousness was satisfied. (Romans 3:24-25; Hebrews 9:15). We should be no less public. In doing so, He is lifted up.