By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
Feeling the old pressure of New Year’s dates and Valentine expectations, I contrast restless singleness with hard-won contentment in Christ. Through regret, divorce, and redemption, I urge women to trust God’s appointed season, warning that chasing marriage can hurt more than waiting.
Add
The preaching of the true word of God always pierces hearts.
“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:41)
Subtract
However, taking away from that word will bring condemnation to those who subtract from it:
“and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:19)
Multiply
We love God’s word so much we share it, not sparingly but liberally. To His own glory, the Lord multiplies what is needed in the sower so they can return and multiply their doing good again and again–
“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 9:10)
Barnes Notes explains, “Multiply your seed sown – Greatly increase your means of doing good; make the result of all your benefactions so to abound that you may have the means of doing good again, and on a larger scale, as the seed sown in the earth is so increased that the farmer may have the means of sowing more abundantly again.”
Divide
But make no mistake, proclamation of, living by, and protecting the word will bring division. Doctrine DOES divide.
“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” (Luke 12:51)
In efforts not to have “division” but a (false) unity based on a watered down version of the Gospel, you really have nothing. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing, said Billy Preston.
John MacArthur on doctrine dividing, from his sermon A Call for Discernment: “When you don’t even lay down clear doctrine at the level of the Gospel, where are you going to go from there? And the cry is, as one man said to me when my book on The Gospel According to Jesus came out, he said, “Your book is divisive!” You want to know something? He’s right. He’s right. Want to know something else? Doctrine divides. People say, “Oh doctrine divides … doctrine divides.” I say, “Amen, preach it, doctrine divides.” You know what it does? It confronts error. It separates true from false. It makes judgments. Today’s climate, however, of unity in the priority of relationships, that’s not tolerable.”
But here is the new math of God’s kingdom: His infinitely extravagant grace! There is no counting it and no end to it. Praise the Lord that His grace and mercies fall on us every day. I can’t add the number of times I’ve been a grateful recipient of it.
“Our Lord is great, vast in power; His understanding is infinite.” (Psalm 147:5)
“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:8).
By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
Technological progress invites both benefit and danger. As AI blurs reality through deepfakes and misinformation, society’s grip on truth weakens, preparing hearts for Revelation’s prophetic deception. Christians must cling to Scripture, the unchanging anchor, amid confusion, remembering only Christ conquers death and saves.
By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
Paul’s declaration of being poured out as a drink offering points believers to Christ, the Chief Cornerstone. From Bethel to New Jerusalem, God builds His dwelling with living stones who steadily give themselves in faith, emptied in joyful response to His finished work.
Continue reading “Built on Christ, Poured Out in Faith”By Elizabeth Prata
Synopsis:
Leah is remembered, but Bilhah and Zilpah often fade into the background. Given as slaves, used as surrogates, and denied agency, they still bore sons who shaped Israel. Their stories expose suffering but a God who did not forget them.
By Elizabeth Prata
Angels are innumerable, powerful, nonhuman beings created by God to serve His ordered purposes. Scripture portrays them as named, hierarchical spirits who worship, judge, minister, and wage warfare. Some rebelled and became demons. Angelology, the study of angels, is legitimate but requires biblical caution and careful discernment of sources.
Continue reading “Are you curious about angels?”By Elizabeth Prata
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be as wary as serpents, and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16).
Did you ever wonder what this means? I do.
Jamieson, Fausset, & Brown Commentary says,
be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves—Wonderful combination this! Alone, the wisdom of the serpent is mere cunning, and the harmlessness of the dove little better than weakness: but in combination, the wisdom of the serpent would save them from unnecessary exposure to danger; the harmlessness of the dove, from sinful expedients to escape it. In the apostolic age of Christianity, how harmoniously were these qualities displayed! Instead of the fanatical thirst for martyrdom, to which a later age gave birth, there was a manly combination of unflinching zeal and calm discretion, before which nothing was able to stand.
Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 36). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
So clear! I like this comment.
The Apostolic Age has passed, but in this day and age of the Church Age, how can we do our diligence and be wise as serpents and innocent as doves?
Firstly, we need to balance shrewd discernment with holy integrity in today’s challenging world. The world is one of the deadly enemies the Bible lists, along with the devil and our flesh. (1 John 2:15-17, Romans 7:15, Galatians 5:16). The world is against us and challenges us at every turn.
Christians must recognize danger- not solely physical danger but spiritual danger from false doctrines and deceitful teachers. We should use wisdom in all our relationships, act with integrity, and avoid compromise. Wise as a serpent means we combine caution with strategic awareness in a meek, non-aggressive spirit.
Following the directive to be wise and innocent given by Jesus really involves everything He and the Apostles said to do and doing all in life with Jesus in mind: such as having a meek and gentle spirit, being holy as he is holy, not lying, loving our neighbor… And so much more.
No one said the Christian life was easy. Pursuing all these things and then balancing them properly seems impossible. But we have an aid that no one else has: the Holy Spirit! Appeal to Him each day, multiple times per day, for wisdom tinged with gentleness, with gentleness tinged with shrewd wisdom. He is a good God and ready to help those who, with pure motivations, seek to obey and love Jesus with all our heart, mind, and soul.
By Elizabeth Prata
Last August 2025, about 6 months ago as of this writing, Ben Kayser started a website and Youtube channel called “Reformed and Dangerous.” From his ‘About’ he stated, “AI-powered songs and rap battles where Scripture meets swagger. Watch pastors, theologians, and historical figures face off in lyrical showdowns on Calvinism, theonomy, church history, and the gospel.”
Recently Kayser put up a ‘rap battle’ between John MacArthur and RC Sproul. He creates AI (artificial intelligence) videos of the theologians saying the lines. These ‘rap battles’ never happened in real life. They are all virtual, thanks to AI.
John MacArthur was a well known and widely loved pastor of Grace Community Church for 56 years. He passed into glory 7 months ago. RC Sproul was pastor of St. Andrews Chapel and founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He passed into glory 9 years ago. The two men were good friends, despite their different theological interpretations of eschatology and baptism.
After MacArthur’s passing a few months ago, almost immediately there was an influx of AI generated videos of a virtually created MacArthur preaching. Some of the videos stuck close to his years-long stated doctrinal interpretations. Others took liberties and put words in the artificial MacArthur’s mouth he never said or believed.
This was a problem. MacArthur’s close friend and manager of MacArthur’s digital recordings at GTY.org, Phil Johnson, put out a warning to the public regarding these AI videos, writing at ,
“YouTube is overrun with videos purporting to be John MacArthur—but produced by AI. These do not reliably represent John MacArthur’s opinion. The only way to be certain any recording is legitimately John MacArthur’s is to get it from http://gty.org. “
So enter in ‘Reformed and Dangerous’ rap battle AI generated video. In the Youtuber’s mind, I’m sure there was no malicious intent. It was just another of his hugely popular videos, and instead of creating videos of long passed theologians John Calvin or Charles Spurgeon, this time Sproul and the newly passed MacArthur were featured.
His video caught the attention of GTY Director Phil Johnson. Apparently in the background, Phil had asked the Reformed and Dangerous publisher to remove the video. R&D did so. Kayser put out an explanation for the public as to why he took it down, right-click on the link in the embed to go to Twitter/X. You can also read the read his explanation on Facebook here.
Phil wrote an essay about the issue. He said that prior to MacArthur’s death, the elders and he had a discussion about AI. Johnson said,
“John was never a fan of Siri or Alexa, and he certainly did not want to lend his face, voice, or personality to an AI-generated cyber-pastor or digital rabbi.” … Johnson is not in favor of AI generated rap battles “because doing something in John MacArthur’s name that we know with absolute certainty he would disapprove is no way to honor him.“
Phil’s essay is here at his Pyromaniacs blog.
VIrtual reality is interesting to me. First, as Christians we need to be as Matthew 10:16 says, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be as wary as serpents, and as innocent as doves.” We cannot be gullible. We must determine what is real and what is virtual. Scam phone calls, fake videos (and Youtube is overrun with them), fake news, and more plague our lives these days. This is one of the downsides of technology, which otherwise has many great advantages.
Second, virtual reality on earth is like earth’s life being virtual as heaven’s life is real. We Christians are sort of living in a virtual reality while the actual reality is heaven. Earthly life is not meaningless, to be sure. It is preparation for heaven. But earth’s life is as virtual as AI compared to heaven. A pale copy! Dear reader, always remember our citizenship is in heaven. Our real life begins the moment we are translated to heaven and we see Jesus face to face.
Meanwhile on earth, as sin grows, fakery grows. Liars, cheaters, deceivers abound. Watch where you step.
By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
For the past two days I’ve written about marriage or divorce. Today I compiled other essays about marriage, divorce, or singleness I’ve written into one spot. In various links, I highlight the sanctity of marriage as ordained by God and examines contemporary issues surrounding divorce in the Christian community, calling for thoughtful consideration of this common yet serious topic.
By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
Divorce is a violent act that disrupts the God-ordained covenant of marriage. I emphasize the sacredness of marriage as a union between one man and one women involving God, and urge both spouses to cherish their commitment, resisting the attacks of fleshly sin. Link in next post.
Continue reading “Divorce: The Violence of Tearing What God Joined”
the-end-time.org 