Month: June 2019

Posted in missions, theology

‘Every tribe and tongue’ an encouraging mission movie (30-min)

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I know there has been a lot of negativity lately. I know you, as I do, look around at our country and the world and see so many lost souls, see the name of Jesus stomped on, and discouragement can creep in.

But then I see things like this and I remember that His name IS spotless and will always remain so, no matter how many people raise their fists at Him. He is working in the world to save souls, and His glory goes before Him and trails after Him. And one day, we will be IN his glory, seeing Him, and seeing all the people he has brought to Himself.

I enjoyed this 30 minute documentary about the call, training, installment, acculturation, and work of a moder day missionary among the YembiYembi tribe of Papua New Guinea. If you feel any sort of sadness or discouragement then this should fix it.

All glory to His name!


YembiYembi: Unto the Nations from Jesse Low on Vimeo.

Posted in discernment, theology

Even Salon.com says “Joel Osteen Worships Himself” (re-post)

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I was working on an essay about the Drag Queen programs in public libraries but I simply could not continue. Here is a repost of an essay I wrote in June 2012. Joel Osteen is a false teacher, you guys.

——————————

Joel Osteen worships himself
At a D.C. rally, it’s clear that the megachurch pastor’s childlike faith is really about the power of narcissism

 The article is from Salon.com, a fairly liberal media outlet. I found it interesting that Mr Osteen’s obvious narcissism is apparent even to someone who may be liberal and may be an outsider to the faith.

Pastor Mike Abendroth at No Compromise Radio and Bethlehem Bible Church says that when people realize Abendroth is a pastor, they try and make an attempt at spiritual connection with him by saying, “I listen to Joel Osteen.” He said as an example to one lady who’d shared that, he had replied,

“Joel Osteen doesn’t like to talk about sin because he says we all know about it and we all get enough about that so let’s talk about other positive things. Paul talked about sin first. Peter talked about sin first. John the Baptist talked about sin first. All the prophets talked about sin first. And Jesus even talked about sin first. If you don’t know you’re a sinner, you don’t need to know about your savior. If you know how great your sin is, you don’t need a greater Savior than all your sin.”

The Salon.com author Mr Chris Lehmann stated in the article that it’s obvious Osteen “subtly downgrades” the magnificent and transcendent God “into a glorified lifestyle concierge”…into a “genial cruise director,” “through talismanic faith in positive utterance.”

He wrote, “The believer’s chief task is to ratify the preexisting divine script of success in his or her individual life — and then to bear testimony to that joyous transformation in a community of like-minded success believers.’

He’s right, that is what Mr Osteen preaches, and it is a far cry from true worship of the Living God.

So what IS worship of the True and Living God? Exodus 15:2 gives one example: “The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

Psalm 66:4: “All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name.”

Rather, in the article, Lehmann states, Osteen has the “outlook of someone possessed of grandiose fantasies about the imperial reach of the self.”

It is not about us. I don’t recall David preaching or writing one Psalm that says we can have our best life now. I don’t recall Jeremiah the weeping prophet pronouncing that ‘It’s your time’. Mr Lehmann ends devastatingly with this thought on Mr Osteen’s approach, which is a:

theology-free success gospel, pitched exclusively to tales of individual triumph. Osteen’s sermons all begin with a self-empowering chant from believers. “This is my Bible,” it goes in part; “I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have.” But there are legions of dead — now confined by definition, it’s true, in the hated past — who come bearing the testimony that the Bible is not actually about you.

It is about the Holy One of Israel, the Word made flesh!!

Woodcut, 1695, Title, “Word” by artist Johann Christoph Weigel. Source

Fear God! Keep your vows! “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.” (Ecclesiastes 5:1).

 

Posted in discernment, theology

Learning when to stay in and when to separate out

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Proverbs is one of the Bible’s Wisdom books. The others are Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs.

We Christians love all people, because we know that all people are image bearers of God. We also love them because we are to live our lives as a witness to the power of Jesus to change lives of sinners to people of love.

There are different kinds of love though. God loves the world, beneficently, but He loves His people covenantly. So do we.

We aren’t doormats, mindlessly loving all people no matter what. There are times and circumstances where we are told to separate from a person, or if you’re a pastor, to excommunicate a person. (1 Corinthians 5:5). We don’t partner with the unsaved or the professing false in spiritual endeavors, nor marry unbelievers. (2 Corinthians 6:14).

Paul was horrified the Corinthian church was tolerating the incest of a man and his mother-in-law’s sexual union. (1 Corinthians 5:1). We are told not to associate with sexually immoral people who claim Christ but live unrepentant, unholy, sexually immoral lives. (1 Corinthians 5:9).

And we all know this one, if you’ve given the Gospel to someone and they revile it and trample it, move on. You can continue to love them by praying for that Gospel seed to take root.

Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. (Matthew 7:6)

Paul wasn’t speaking of standing apart and refusing to talk with or be with the unsaved. They can’t help what they do, and they need the verbal witness of the Gospel spoken to them and the tacit witness of a life lived for Christ. We’re still in the world, after all.

The issue is with professing Christians. It’s more significant when it involves professing Christians, because of the blot on Jesus’ name. There is a time to love and engage with those who profess Christ, and there is a time to shun them who say they love Jesus but say or do things consistently that belie that profession.

There’s another verse that speaks to to this issue, from Proverbs-

A man of great anger will bear the penalty,
For if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again.
(Proverbs 19:19)

I knew a man like that. He wasn’t in Christ. His anger was always bubbling, ready to erupt. He lodged a lot of lawsuits, he did a lot of yelling, grumbling, hating. The commentaries on the Proverb say,

Repeated acts of kindness are wasted on ill-natured people. John MacArthur Study Bible Note 

The sense of this proverb seems to be that the connection between unseemly anger and punishment is so invariable that any effort to save such a man from the disastrous consequences, which he brings upon himself by his anger, would do little good; because it wouldn’t be long till he would again need deliverance.” Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible 

for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again; if he is got out of one broil, he will get into another quickly; if he clear of one lawsuit, another will be commenced against him in a short time; if he is discharged and freed from a penalty he is justly subject to, it must be done again and again; he will fall into the same evil, and there is no end of appearing, for him and serving him; a wrathful man brings himself into great trouble, Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

MacArthur preached,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” … At first reading, it sounds like Jesus wants to make us all into sanctimonious doormats.

“The fact that your heart is prone to retaliation, to get even, is evidence enough that no system of human religion can deal with the heart of the human problem. You need a Savior, a righteousness beyond our own.” That’s what He’s saying, and that’s the heart of the matter here.

In other words, don’t start a feud, or a vengeance thing. Don’t get some revenge going, that’s all He’s saying. He’s not talking about categorical evil and letting it overrun your life

Read the word, learn from commentaries, pray, and be aware that loving one’s neighbor sometimes means there are cases where it is better not to have anything to do with him than to be tempted to seek revenge, or continue to help out an angry man, or to partner with someone who is sexually immoral, etc. We’re always to be kind and reasonable, but we’re not doormats either.

separate

Further Resources

The Purpose of Wisdom Literature

How can a Christian avoid being a doormat for other people?

 

 

Posted in love, theology

What is love?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I don’t like writing about myself and I never talk about my internal emotions and thoughts. I’d really rather die than talk about what’s going on inside me. But I have to this time, because it’s about Jesus.

As a woman who grew up in a difficult circumstance, I learned to rely only on myself and to be strongly independent and self-sufficient, and have been so for 50 years (since I was 8). Yet when I was given the grace of salvation 15 years ago, I learned also that the Lord wants me to share my burdens and to interlock in mutual submission with others in caring relationships. I don’t know how to do this, it’s literally beyond my life experience and my emotional capacity. But with God all things are possible.

I am learning His lessons about trusting Him in sharing burdens and loving others- as well as accepting love from others. My prayers are being answered day by day, His glory is being shown- through all of my different families- Twitter tweeps, School family, Church body in a huge and impactful way.

Life before salvation and outside of church, was a bewildering swirl of relationships between others…not knowing how to break in or even particularly wanting to:

relationships1b
I still have difficulty with socializing and developing or maintaining relationships. It’s not a matter of trying harder or willpower or shyness. It’s irritating when people try to sympathize by saying “I’m shy too” when it’s literally a matter of different brain wiring, and not behavior modification. I know they are trying to be nice, but it’s a totally wrong thing to say.

Though my brain is made differently, nothing is too difficult for God. Through the incessant work of the Holy Spirit, like water eventually wears through stone, the glory of God that is shown through my friends, after 5 decades and a loving set of families the Lord has given me, we have this:

relationships2b
I still don’t know the “how” of it. But I can feel the love. I love you back.

The important thing is to keep persevering.

persevere
Further Resources:

RC Sproul lectures: Love

19 Secrets Autistic People…(what not to say)

14 Things not to say to an Autistic Person (I’ve actually had someone say #11 to my face, except it was phrased more rudely)

Love for the Long Haul: The Autism Pastor

Posted in encouragement, theology

Good fruit (Not what you think)

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I was cutting up a nectarine that had been sitting in my fruit bowl for many days. “Surely it will be ripe by now” I thought.

I began chopping it into chunks to add to my oatmeal, and it was still hard and unripe. Gah! Other times when I think the piece of fruit is ripe, it’s dried out and mummy-like inside.

It’s not that I can’t tell when a piece of fruit is ripe, I can. It’s that the declining quality of the fruits makes it hard to determine if this one is juicy or this one is always going to remain a rock. Lately at the grocery store, choosing fruit has been like Fruit Roulette.

I remember my friend and I driving in the Tuscan countryside (yes, really) and we got behind a small tractor pulling a trailer of artichokes. The road was bumpy and occasionally an artichoke tumbled out and bounced on the pavement in front of us. We laughed and started saying, ‘Did you think I fell off the artichoke truck yesterday?’ changing the idiom from ‘the turnip truck’.

Here he is after turning down the driveway to a farm:

tuscan artichoke wagon.jpg

In New England, where I used to live, fall meant apples, cider, vivid foliage,and pumpkins. I lived near a pumpkin farm. Imagine pulling up pounds and pounds and tons of pumpkins and loading each one onto the wagon. Oof, hard labor for sure. Here’s the wagon, so colorfully enticing for buyers looking for a pumpkin to make that perfect jack-o-lantern-

pumpkins.jpg

I live in a farming community now and the farmer’s markets are filled with abundance, like this watermelon farmer’s truck.

watermelon

I think of the passages that promise abundance during the 1000 reign of Christ.

Each of them will sit under his vine And under his fig tree, With no one to make them afraid, For the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. (Micah 4:4)

In that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his fig tree.  (Zechariah 3:10)

If the earth is so beautiful now, (under its curse), and there is abundance rising from it (with toil and sweat, yes), then how beautiful will the coming kingdom be? How will it feel to sit in the sun and have a conversation with a beloved member of the redeemed body, and not worry about where your pickpockets and thieves? Not fear assault? No mass shootings?

What will these figs and their foods taste like? Heavenly, literally. My fruit on the plate will be ripe, beautiful, perfect. No more disappointments cutting into a piece of fruit only to find it withered or hard or juiceless.

I know we praise Jesus for the big things, like redemption, grace, propitiation, etc. But I also look forward to the peace and tranquility the coming kingdom will afford His people, and its fruits.

 

Posted in book review, theology

Book Review Shots: Updates on books read and to-read

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Time for a reading update!

I am on summer break from my job in an elementary school. I’m a teacher’s aide, now called “para-professional.” I enjoy summer break enormously and one of the ways I try to ‘redem the time’ is to catch up on some quality reading.

I set aside a bunch of books to read, and a schedule to read them in. Here’s the list of books and my short reviews of each.

  • Bible
  • Biblical Doctrine, John MacArthur et al
  • Competing Spectacles, Tony Reinke
  • Her Husband’s Crown, Sara Leone
  • Idols of a Mother’s Heart, Christina Fox
  • In a Different Key: Story of Autism, John Donovan
  • Internet Inferno, John Michael Beasley
  • It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis
  • Life of David, RC Sproul (lectures)
  • Lit!, Tony Reinke
  • Margaret Paton Letters from South Seas, Margaret Paton
  • Phantom Rickshaw & Other Eerie Stories, Rudyard Kipling
  • Selina Countess of Huntingdon, Faith Cook
  • The Believer’s Joy, Robert M’Cheyne
  • Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennet, Ed
  • Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

I have added a few books to my original list:

Empty Nest, What’s Next by Michele Howe
Mayflower by Nathanial Philbrick
Life of Moses by James Boice

I decided to read Internet Inferno again even though I finished it, it’s THAT GOOD.
Books I’ve finished:

I mentioned that Beasley’s Internet Inferno is good. He applies the warnings and commands of James about the tongue to our practices and behavior online. Very clear writing and excellent application of the verses. Highly recommended.

The Phantom ‘Rickshaw & other Eerie Tales, is a collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling, first published in 1888. I always try to include a literary classic in my summer list, and this book was it. I’d found it in a vintage store for $1 and was delighted to try a Kipling. #TrueConfession: I’ve never read The Jungle Book or any other Kipling.

Kipling is no doubt a literary giant and a master storyteller. He is so good in fact, that this eerie set of stories made me highly uncomfortable and creeped me out. I stopped reading the book at the story about the living dead, it was vivid and put pictures in my mind I didn’t want to carry with me. However, the stories are well-done so if you’re less sensitive than me I recommend the book. It’s little known so you might have difficulty finding it.

It Can’t Happen Here is a Sinclair Lewis political novel written in 1935. It’s about just how easily a representative democracy (ours) can become a dictatorship. Last summer I’d read Lewis’ Elmer Gantry, (1927) which turned out to be the best book I ever read on religious hypocrisy. Talk about chilling, Kipling has nothing on creeping you out. Lewis definitively captured the emptiness and evil of a Christ-less convert turned celebrity pastor. The book was long and a bit of a slog, but I kept with it and I was glad I did. The book still haunts me.

It Can’t Happen Here is also a slog, but try as I might I couldn’t get through it. Lewis’ language is terrific, his turns of phrase and word pictures are unmatched. It’s just that there is so much of it. The story slows down and suffers because it seems Lewis was more entranced with his artful turns of phrase than just telling a good story. Gantry was a masterpiece, Happen Here, sadly, isn’t. I took it off my ‘currently reading shelf.’ Maybe next year.

FMI on 4 Lewis books that are better than It Can’t Happen Here

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (2018) was a ‘can’t put down book’. It’s everything a well-written, gripping, emotional novel should be. I raced through it. When I wasn’t reading it, I wished I was. Recommended.

I reviewed Her Husband’s Crown earlier this summer. It was just a 42 page book, a small pamphlet really. It’s a practical bundle of advice aimed at pastors’ wives but applicable to any women who is a member of a church. Recommended.

My Bible reading right now is through Proverbs, which, being wisdom books, coincide nicely with Lit!, Competing Spectacles, and Internet Inferno.

Ladies, don’t feel bad about reading books, even novels. Sometimes I get a twinge, thinking that if I have this time shouldn’t I devote it totally to the Lord, and read only the Bible and theological books. Are novels, or even historical fiction, taking away time I could better redeem? Tony Reinke in Lit! answers that. And because I agree with him, lol, I’ll post his bullet points here.

  • Fictional literature can help us explore abstract human experiences
  • Fictional literature can deepen our appreciation for concrete human experience
  • Fictional literature expands our range of experiences
  • Fictional literature provides beauty and creativity to be enjoyed

In Owens’ Crawdads book I thoroughly enjoyed her atmospheric descriptions of the Low Country, the marshes, estuary, and ocean of South Carolina, and the lushness of her language. The scenery reminded me of a fond memory I have of anchoring our sailboat in the Georgia marshes and hearing the rushes shake as the tide turned, and the owls hooting under the moonlight.

As for the remaining books on my list that I’ve begun already, I am enjoying them to greater and lesser degrees. I grade them all from a B to A+. More to come as I progress through each book.

Happy Summer Reading!

summer reading

Posted in theology

Does the SBC and Lifeway apply a double standard to Beth Moore? Open Letter follow-up

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

There has been quite a hue and cry over the Open Letter to Beth Moore that I and 5 other ladies published on June 18. That is a direct testament to the influence and fame of Beth Moore. In the Letter we posed 5 simple questions, asking her to make clear her stance on homosexuality.

Huge Following, Huge Influence means Souls are at Stake

Living Proof Ministries (LPM) participated in multiple conferences and simulcasts last year. Moore taught at LPLive events plus other various events with a total of 284k total attendees. Her weekly TV program reached 2.7m households. 24,000 units of her video and written material were shipped. LPM’s online ministry outreach utilizes Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, Moore’s social media which currently have a combined following of 1.6 million people. Once we add in the people who access Moore’s teachings via LPM’s app, various non-official Youtube videos, and the Living Proof Blog, her following reaches well over 2 million people.

We asked, because Moore’s partnerships and affirmation of gay-affirming Jen Hatmaker and Jonathan Merritt are seem to indicate a tacit approval of homosexuality. Hatmaker’s own following is considerable- 1.3 million followers on FB, IG, and Twitter.

That is a lot of souls being reached with the message that the homosexual lifestyle is OK, that homosexual marriage can be holy, and that homosexual marriage can be part of Christianity. Souls, who are actively being taught by Hatmaker and Merritt that their chosen lifestyle is one that needs no repenting, and that Moore, by her plaudits and approvals and partnerships with Hatmaker and Merritt, yet her conspicuous silence on clearly repudiating the behavior as sin, also makes the statement that homosexuality needs no repenting of.

Souls, who, unless that are taught clearly and unequivocally the truth, will find themselves cast into hell forever.

SBC’s Double Standard when applied to Moore

In addition, there is another grave concern. Many people have noticed a wobble in the Southern Baptist Convention, a softening, like butter left on the counter for too long. We know that in the past the SBC has been staunch on its commitment to biblical truth. We know that they claim to stand on biblical truth now, but there is also some confusion about how and when they apply their own biblical litmus tests.

SBC’s Litmus Test

As Michelle Lesley explained in her interview with Andrew Rappaport, the SBC has made homosexuality a litmus test for whether churches can be in friendly cooperation with the SBC. If you are a church that supports homosexuality or are a pastor who says that it’s not a sin, or that it’s OK, your church is in danger of being disfellowshipped from the Convention. That has happened a handful of times over the last several years. Churches have been removed for standing on the unbiblical side of homosexuality. So, the SBC has made homosexuality a litmus test for churches.

Here’s an example of such a disfellowshipping reported by the Baptist Press.

Lifeway’s Litmus Test

Lifeway, the bookselling arm of the SBC, has also made homosexuality a litmus test for its authors. Two years ago Lifeway pulled Jen Hatmaker’s books from its shelves when Hatmaker affirmed her LGBT beliefs, and stated that homosexual marriage can be holy. Lifeway’s response was,

“In a recent interview, [Hatmaker] voiced significant changes in her theology of human sexuality and the meaning and definition of marriage—changes which contradict LifeWay’s doctrinal guidelines,” LifeWay spokesman Marty King said Thursday. “As a result, LifeWay has discontinued selling her resources.” Source

Hatmaker was clear in her statement regarding homosexuality. Lifeway was equally clear in their response. If there is one thing to admire about Jen Hatmaker, as unbiblical as her beliefs are, she is crystal clear about what they are and is unashamed to promote them, even in the face of lost revenue from Lifeway.

Beth Moore has not been clear. Sadly, Moore’s continued support of and partnerships with those who promote the ungodly lifestyle make her position very unclear. Six days after the Letter was published, Moore finally issued a series of tweets that seemed to be a response to the Letter, while avoiding mention of the Letter, omitted mention of homosexuality, and indignantly muddied the waters with a victim attitude. This actually made things worse.

So here are the questions:

Beth Moore is the best selling author that Lifeway has. (Source). Moore brings in to Lifeway more money than any other author, than any other conference speaker. Her net worth as of last tax year was 14 million dollars. She brings in so much money that Lifeway can afford to usher Mrs Moore around to her conferences in a private jet.

So, does the SBC and its arm, Lifeway, only apply its litmus test on the sin of homosexuality to others but not their favored ones?

Why should Beth Moore not have to answer the same questions that Hatmaker did? Or as Eugene Peterson did?

Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16 to watch your doctrine and your life. Living clearly on the right side of biblical, moral lines is important for any leader, then as now, because the world watches. They have to know where the lines are.

Lifeway has a doctrinal standard they place on their authors, and though Moore has not written about homosexuality in her books or studies (except a few sentences in her 1997 book “To Live is Christ”), her approvals and partnerships with people who are on the wrong side of the issue makes for lines that are smeared and blurred. Millions who follow Moore are living in that blurry part of the line. Moore can easily clear that up, and make the lines sharp, so that her followers know on which side she stands.

One thing Mrs Moore can learn from Jen Hatmaker, that even though she is in error, Jen is clear and fearless regarding homosexuality.

Souls.

Since the SBC and Lifeway have made homosexuality a litmus test, why should SBC pastors, churches, Lifeway authors, Hatmaker, and Peterson have to make it clear where they stand on homosexuality, but not Beth Moore?

Most interesting of all, why has someone at Lifeway not asked these questions and had Moore answer them? If they have asked, and Moore has answered them, would the SBC/Lifeway please let the millions of souls who follow Beth Moore know? Eternities are at stake.

————————————-

PS: Some ladies have asked why Beth Moore’s stance on homosexuality is my business. I am a member of a Southern Baptist Convention church. Since I am a SBC member and Beth Moore is a SBC member, this issue is my business.

Resources on this issue:

Some Moore defenders have stated that Moore hasn’t answered because she isn’t sure, or is too busy, or it would take too much time. I issued a series of tweets where the answer from pastors and evangelical leaders are so pithy they could be contained in one tweet. Here they are, and the sources from which these statements came. I invite you to listen or read, for further exploration.

John MacArthur:
Homosexuality and the Campaign for Immorality

Unimaginable that American leadership and people would join together in giving hearty approval to the destructive, deadly, damning sin of homosexuality.

RC Sproul:
Homosexuality (series)

In the Old Testament homosexual practices were considered not only sinful, but of a gross and heinous sinfulness.

Ray Comfort, Living Waters:
Coming out of the Closet on Homosexuality

In the same way we can’t say that gays may enter Heaven, because according to the Bible, that’s not true. We have it from the greatest Authority on earth that nothing unclean in God’s sight will enter Heaven—no fornicator, idolater, liar, thief, blasphemer, adulterer, sexually immoral person, or homosexual will enter (see 1 Corinthians 6:9,10). Yet some who profess to be Christians betray homosexuals by lying to them and saying, “All is well. Step through the doors. You will be okay.” We cannot do that, because we love you and want you to make it to Heaven.

John Piper:
Why is Homosexuality Wrong?

I think it’s implied clearly and spoken clearly in Romans 1:24-29 that homosexuality is wrong and to be avoided.

Further links on this subject:

Michelle Lesley: Mailbag: Questions about the Open Letter to Beth Moore

Michelle Lesley: Michelle on Rapp Report Podcast, interview regarding the Open Letter, Complementarianism, and more

DebbieLynne Kespert: Did I Publish The Open Letter To Beth Moore In Order To Get People To Read The Outspoken TULIP? 

yarn and bible

Posted in theology

Propitiation: A Stunning Method to Bring the Son a Bride

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

From John MacArthur et al Biblical Doctrine

Propitiation: Scripture represents Christ’s death not merely as a sacrifice, but as a propitiatory sacrifice. That is to say, by receiving the full exercise of the father’s wrath against the sins of his people, Christ satisfied God’s righteous anger against sin and thus turned away his wrath from us who, had it not been for our substitute, were bound to suffer for it ourselves. The New Testament explicitly identifies Christ’s work as a propitiation in 4 texts:

Romans 3:24-25, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

Hebrews 2:17, Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

1 John 2:2, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

1 John 4:10,  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

This alone is enough to render me stunned into a permanent and deep gratitude for God’s grace in saving me from His wrath. And propitiation is but one benefit of his salvation. He gives so many benefits to the called; justification, adoption, love, family, ministry to do on earth and to receive from Jesus from heaven, sanctification, glorification, fellowship with Him, prayers that are heard … I could go on, the benefits of salvation are numerous and eternal.

Propitiation…a staggering method to ensure a Bride for God’s Son. No human could have conceived of this, no man could have made this up. It’s all contained in God’s word. Read your Bible today.

propitiation

Posted in theology

The opposite view of Elisha’s servant

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

During preparation for battle, prophet Elisha’s servant was weak kneed and worried. There seemed to be a lot of them and not a lot of us.

When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15-17).

Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel saw the throne of God in heaven through visions. Paul (we assume) was lifted up to heaven and saw things he could not express. John, Peter, James saw heaven come down in the form of a transfigured Jesus in His glory. These men had glimpses of things beautiful and glorious. Paul (we assume) seemed especially affected, the way we spoke of the experience in 2 Corinthians 12:7. He said what he saw was of surpassing greatness. The word surpassing here in Greek is hyperbole, you might recognize the term. Here it is in a strong emphatic meaning beyond measure, excessively beyond, surpassing excellence.

This all makes me want to see heaven even more! But what about the opposite? What if we could pray to the Lord as Elisha did, and say, “Lord, open their eyes and show them their future, in punishment and torment in the Lake of Fire, where the worm does not die.” If people could see hell, would they repent? Would they believe God means what He says?

Just imagine for a moment that the eyes of all unconverted men were opened to see the situation in which they stand. Oh! What doleful cries of agony and terror would rise from every dwelling, when they saw that the Almightiness of Jehovah is all ready to be let loose upon them, body and soul, forever. ~M’Cheyne, “The Believer’s Joy”

Would they be aghast, not at seeing God who encircles His throne with holiness and glory so strong it wold kill you to merely glimpse it, but the orange-lit fires of hell, a blazing furnace of sulphur, where the screams and cries of the damned echo eternally.

Jonathan Edwards evoked the picture of hell in his famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. His preaching about our sin and its just and due punishment, sent people flinging themselves into the aisles at the thought of such wrath for sin. Edwards wanted, not to scare them, but to awaken them to the fact that there does exist a just punishment for sin, and that the day of reckoning may come sooner rather than later for any person in the church that day.

The veil had been momentarily lifted through Edwards’ word pictures and viewing that scene in their mind’s eye was one of grief and pain for the hearers. Stephen Williams, who had attended the sermon that day, said that “The [sic] shreiks and crys were piercing and amazing.”

Until salvation comes, unrepentant sinners stand on a precipice so gaping, the fires so hot, hell so yawning, and that the punishment is eternal, that it is hard to grasp the weight and fact of it. Truly, the unregenerate mind does not even try to grasp it.

Fortunately, though God allowed Elisha’s servant to glimpse his majesty and might, we don’t need God to allow glimpses of hell in order to visualize the fact of coming punishment, nor do we need vivid word pictures like Edwards’, as helpful as sermons like his were and are. Any person at any time can read about it in His book, the Holy Bible. Jesus explained about it, the Spirit inspired other verses and passages about the reality of hell. It’s the opposite of bountiful joy, eternal torment. Jesus spoke more about hell than any other issue.

Jesus talks about hell more than he talks about heaven, and describes it more vividly. There’s no denying that Jesus knew, believed, and warned against the absolute reality of hell. Source

It begins and ends there. Learn about a holy God who judges and saves. See the written, inspired descriptions of joys abounding in heaven and torments unspeakable in hell. Comprehend the law and grace available to your inquiring eyes.

In that moment, God gave Elisha’s servant a mercy in allowing him a glimpse of God’s protective might. But in reading the Bible, we can not merely glimpse, but absorb and enjoy learning about Jesus, His love and His wrath- both.

Edwards’ word pictures alone were enough to startle a congregation and elicit moans and cries on the spot. Imagine the real reality of the lake of burning sulphur, of not being lovingly placed there, but thrown, like a used tissue. Of being in it forever. read His word on to gain knowledge of our sin, His punishment for it, and the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, the gracious remedy.

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