By Elizabeth Prata
This summer the Lord blessed me with an abundance of new followers. I am so grateful you’re here! I want you to know I take seriously the things I publish, and I work hard to answer questions or comments with grace, in the Lord.
I thought now would be a good time to post an answer to a few questions I’ve received from newcomers, or just to refresh the Mission Statement of this ministry, for the newbies and oldies.
Short Bio
I grew up in New England, a very God-less region. I had little-to-no exposure to church and neither parent was religious. In fact, my father was a fervent atheist. Nevertheless, grace came and I was saved at age 43. I was married and divorced before salvation, now I’m permanently single. I work. I’ve been a teacher for my career and now I’m a teacher’s aide in a public school system. I was also a journalist for a while, and I’ve always been a writer of some sort throughout.
Spiritual influences
Shortly after salvation I started listening to Joel Osteen, who was coming into huge fame at that time (~2004). I enjoyed his positive attitude and also the rhetorical arc of his speeches. But then someone gave me a Bible and when I followed along I realized by the grace of God and the influence of the Holy Spirit, that Osteen was false. Then I began listening to Adrian Rogers. I moved to Georgia and at that time I also began listening to John MacArthur and the people in that circle. (Phil Johnson, Mike Riccardi, Paul Washer, Voddie Baucham, RC Sproul etc). I began attending and still attend a church each week, church attendance is important. I am a Reformed Baptist member of a local church, elder led, expository preaching, with faithful attendance. I am mentor in real life to some younger women, and I love the church gathering whether it’s Sunday service, family small groups, or Sunday School.
Mission Statement
I am 62 years old as of this writing. That means I was about 32 before the internet became a household utility. Prior to that there was no internet. So when I was saved, the opportunity to self-publish content was a gracious gift and I established a blog in 2006. It is called The Quiet Life, based on 1 Thessalonians 4:11. and contained content of personal thoughts. As I grew in the Lord, increasingly I was posting about religious matters, so I established The End Time in 2009 devoted exclusively to our faith matters.
My mission is to publish essays for women, my intended audience, that-
1. Honor Jesus by being biblically accurate (“rightly divided word”) and well written (do all to the glory of God”),
2. Point to credible resources for women to have handy to learn more from credible preachers and theologians,
3. Use social media to employ to the glory of the Holy Spirit the spiritual gifts He has bestowed on me.
Blog Subjects
I write what I feel passionate about, and I believe that passion stems from the spiritual gifts the Spirit has given me, along with personal interests I have. He stirs up affections, and my affections are for right doctrine, and good discernment. I believe the Spirit has given me gifts of exhortation, encouragement, and discernment, so I write about doctrine, encouragement, and discernment. I also personally enjoy natural history, the lands and animals of the Bible and write about them occasionally too.
Why “The End Time”?
No I’m not a fringe end times buff. I named this ministry the end time because we are IN the time of the end. This is the period bracketed by His ascension and His return. The End Time. (Please note, no ‘s’). I want women to remember that and thus, be about our Father’s business with eagerness and fervency. Someday, time will end. Have we worked out our salvation with fear and trembling? Live in such a way that you won’t have regrets when we face Jesus.
I’ve posted every day since January 2009. I started the blog on Blogspot (Blogger) and exported it to WordPress in 2016. I’ve written 6000+ essays, with only a few repeats and very few guest posts. This is a testament to the Holy Spirit sustaining me in this writing ministry and the Bible’s endless wonders whose depths I plumb in amazement.
My earliest, earliest blogs were newspaper eisegesis, that is, looking at the news and backdating it to match what the Bible says. As a new believer I was so flushed with amazement at learning the hows and whys of the world I was basking in my new-found worldview. Soon enough that settled down and I put the Bible first rather than the news.
Podcast
As new technology came along and as I observed the ladies in my church growing up, marrying, and now having children, I saw that a podcast would be helpful for them since they rarely had time anymore to sit down and read a blog. I started recording my blog on a ‘podcast’ which I put in quotes because it is not long form, has no guests, and is simply me reading what I wrote. But if listening is easier for women, then I am all for adjusting to the times and employ the podcast capability. My goal remains, get good, biblical content in front of women and point to credible resources.
Conclusion
It is a joyous thing for me when a woman says she is no longer following a false teacher or is growing in the Lord or has gained wisdom in some way, by something I wrote. It is a wonderful thing to grow in the Lord. I’m grateful for my readers. Thank you!
All to the glory of God.
the-end-time.org 