elizabethprata

God’s sovereignty in providence: Esther and Jael

Posted on January 30, 2017January 30, 2017 by elizabethprata

God is sovereign of the entire universe. He plans what he plans and He does what he pleases.

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (Psalm 115:3).

It’s admittedly hard to understand how God can and does orchestrate all events at once, constantly, over the earth and throughout the stars, so that His plans providentially combine in perfect harmony to enact His will. But He is God and we’re not supposed to understand it! It is also hard to understand how our personal decisions are still personal but also are part of His will and plan and the outcome is predetermined. That our decisions are our own yet are part of a pre-ordained plan that all leads to the cross and beyond is a tension our finite minds can’t comprehend. It is a joy to ponder them though, because in so doing, we come up against God’s power, omniscience, and will.

Here are two things to consider when looking at God’s providence and will, with our decisions and will.

Esther

The book of Esther was not written by Esther but it is about Esther, her Hebrew name was Hadassah. She lived during the time of King Ahasuerus of Persia, also known as King Xerxes. Through a series of providential events, Esther wound up as Queen to Ahasuerus and also was put in a position to save her people. However the saving of her people was at dire risk to her own life. She was discussing what to do with her uncle Mordecai, and Mordecai famously said,

“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

Esther could make her own decision. She could risk her life and go in to the King, or she could stay in the harem and not go to the King. Mordecai knew God’s character well enough to know that His promise to keep a remnant of His people alive would indeed happen, whether Esther decided to participate at this particular moment or not. God would keep His promise no matter what Esther decided. The choice was hers. Esther decided to go in and speak to the King even though he had not called for her (usually this meant death). We know the rest, Esther’s action revealed to the King the evil deeds of Haman and Haman was killed instead of the Jews.

Jael

Jael was the wife of Heber the Kenite. Sisera had been cruelly oppressing the Hebrews for 20 years. The people cried out. Deborah was civic leader at that time, prophesying and judging. She sent for Barak, the military leader and told him to go take care of the problem. Barak could freely decide what to do. He could go or he could not go, the choice was his. He said he would not go unless Deborah came with him. (Judges 4:8). His answer was in effect, no. Deborah replied that she would go with Barak, but it would be an embarrassment to him because God would deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman, and Barak would not get the military glory for the victory.

Barak freely made his choice, but now the outcome would occur from another quarter, just as Mordecai had said it would if Esther decided against her action.

Into the story enters Jael. After Barak routed Sisera’s army, Sisera fled. Sisera aimed toward the tent of Heber the Kenite. Sisera knew there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor (Sisera’s King) and the house of Heber the Kenite. Heber had separated from the Kenites and was settled far from the action. Sisera ran, believing he was safe to go toward the area where there was no fighting and where there was peace between the parties. Normally he would be right, especially since hospitality customs were so strong in protecting those who are invited into the tent. However in this providential case, Sisera was wrong. Jael invited Sisera into the tent, gave him drink, and covered him as he fell asleep.

Note that Sisera fell asleep. He had a hard day of fighting, but even though his life was in peril he felt comfortable enough where he let down his guard and fall asleep. Women in those days were responsible for pitching the tents and so Jael was strong enough and familiar enough with how to efficiently hammer a tent peg into the ground. As Sisera slept, she drove a tent peg into his temple and pinned his head to the ground. The verse succinctly states, “So he died.” (Judges 4:21b).

And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple. 23So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel. (Judges 4:22-23).

Barak had kind of said “I will go” but not really. Placing conditions on your obedience isn’t really obedience to God. I like how the verse says God subdued Jabin.

Whether Esther went in or didn’t go in, God would deliver the Jews from Haman. Whether Barak went to battle or didn’t go to battle, God would deliver the Jews from King Jabin and Commander Sisera. Both Esther and Barak freely decided on a course of action. Yet both outcomes occurred at the providential hand of God.

God is amazing.

Anonymous.
Jael and Sisera
pen drawing — c. 1440 – 1450
Museum Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig. The name of the drafter is not known. He is thought to be someone close to Van Eyck and his workshop. Source: Art and the Bible

encouragement, Uncategorized

YHWH is my Banner

Posted on January 29, 2017January 29, 2017 by elizabethprata

As you head to worship today, if you are reading this on a Sunday, raise your banner of the LORD before you and praise Him, exalt Him, and love Him. If you’re reading this on a weekday, raise your banner of the LORD before you and share His Light in your sphere by your words and deeds.

Chris Powers is an artist, animator, and Bible study writer who makes his products available for free. Please visit his page at fullofeyes.com, or support him on Patreon. Mr Powers is drawing an illustration to a verse per day. I will post them frequently, because they are beautiful, scriptural, and edifying. Visual theology at its beautiful best. Read below for artist’s explanation.

YHWH is my Banner

Mr Powers said:

Today’s verse picture is more of a visual word study (thus the inclusion of verse references within the picture, which I don’t typically do for these). You can take a look at the verses and how they intertwine below:
________

Notice the repeated Hebrew word for Banner/Signal (נס) in the following verses:

Exodus 17:15, “And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, ‘YHWH Is My Banner (נס)” – YHWH as נס

Numbers 21:8, “And YHWH said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole (נס), and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” – Serpent set on נס

Isaiah 11:10-12, “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal (נס)…[the Lord] will raise a signal (נס) for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel…” – The Messiah as נס raised to gather the nations…

John 3:14-15, “…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”

John 3:14-15 unites the imagery of YHWH, the curse, the Messiah, and the beacon raised to gather the nations into one–the crucified Son…

Uncategorized

Surprised by Leviticus

Posted on January 28, 2017 by elizabethprata

I’ve read most of the Bible. I’ve read through the New Testament all in one swoop, and then I’ve read different Books straight through several times.

I’ve read all of the Old Testament Prophets and loved them. I love Genesis especially. I’ve read Lamentations and Ecclesiastes and loved them too. I’m fascinated by Psalms and Proverbs, even the verses I don’t understand.

I’ve never read Leviticus and Numbers.

Until now.

Going through the Bible in a 90-days Reading Plan does have its upside. I came to Leviticus early on and since this particular plan suggests reading 12 pages a day, I got through Leviticus quickly. I have to say that drinking the Word through a fire hose and moving on while still wet is quite a different experience than sipping it like a hummingbird and then meditating and studying while it digests.

I loved Leviticus. Just as you put anything else off and then finally get to it and it turns out to be not only not bad, but easy and great, and you say “Why did I wait so long to do this?” That was my reaction to Leviticus. Even its repetition was purposeful. I came away with the following reactions:

A renewed appreciation for the blood. Christianity is a bloody religion. All religions are bloody. This one is bloody for a good reason. Christianity requires sacrifices, blood, and incessant focus on the blood. The reason for this is explained in the short Overview of Leviticus below. Suffice to say, God’s institution of Old Testament ritual and purity laws had great meaning in the original cultural setting. But even today, they have great meaning for us, even though we no longer sacrifice animals. Christianity is ALL about the blood, and in my opinion, in no other book do we gain such an appreciation for this fact.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Leviticus 17:11)

Secondly, I gained a renewed appreciation for the holiness of God. His purity, power, and holiness is displayed so magnificently in Leviticus. It is not as dramatic as His power in creating the world in Genesis, or when He parted the Red Sea in Exodus, but it is through His relationship with His people that we see His holiness and purity. It’s always great to learn, remember, and ponder His holiness in whatever form He chooses to reveal it, and for me, Leviticus did that.

Why wait? Perhaps you will have the same reaction to Leviticus as I did. It’s almost like, all scripture is profitable for… Wait, there’s a verse for that.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16).

The Bible Project’s Book of Leviticus Overview. Worth your time either before or after you read.

The Word of God is always wonderful. Always.

architecture, Uncategorized

Church bell towers soon a thing of the past

Posted on January 27, 2017January 27, 2017 by elizabethprata

I have always loved the sound of church bells. In the olden days when I was a child, we often heard some kind of bell from towers and steeples. We even heard the organs.

No more. Not so much.

One reason is the cost. Steeples and towers and bells require a financial investment to maintain them that is often cost-prohibitive today. Additionally, there aren’t many men going into the profession of steeplejack these days.

Church steeples, aging out of fashion, meet their maker

Atop the tiny, white-columned 1842 church where Glen Likens was baptized, where he married his wife, where their children were baptized, where they still worship on Sundays, the steeple is rotting. St. Mark’s Episcopal in Wadsworth, Ohio, hasn’t dared sound the 2,000-pound bell, which has a broken carriage and patched hammer, for a year. It may not sound again — unless a congregation numbering 58 souls in a good week can come up with $30,000.

“It’s no easy amount to raise. We absolutely considered taking it off and capping the roof, but voices within the congregation want their bell, their tower. It’s symbolic. It’s part of our church. We want it to be there for our children’s future,” says Likens, who volunteers as St. Mark’s junior warden in charge of maintenance.

Nationwide, church steeples are taking a beating and the bell tolls for bell towers, too, as these landmarks of faith on the landscape are hard hit by economic, social and religious change.

Steeplejacks, specialists in clambering up to build or repair the soaring structures, see weather-struck, maintenance-deprived steeples chipped, leaking, even tilting. Architects and church planners see today’s new congregations meet in retooled sports arenas or shopping malls or modern buildings designed to appeal to contemporary believers turned off by the look of old-time religion.

Steeples may have outlived their times as signposts. People hunting for a church don’t scan the horizon, they search the Internet. Google reports searches for “churches” soar before Easter each year.

St. Mark’s, which has no website, has never needed to tell the 22,000 people in Wadsworth where it was because, Likens says, “everyone in town knows this is the church with the bell tower.”

Caption photo below: This New England Historic church’s cupola was removed for repair and returned atop the church. It was an lengthy, expensive, and delicate process.

Here is James A. Regester writing about in the Introduction to his 1908 book The Worship of the Church of the history of church buildings.

Churches are designed they way they are for a reason.”As soon as the early Christians were at liberty to build churches according to their own mind, they took pains to make them significant of their religion. Probably at first the Christians took for the purposes of their worship such buildings as they could get, adapting them to their uses as best they might. But when they grew strong enough and independent enough to build as the heart and imagination dictated, then they showed themselves careful to make their houses of God in shape and dimension suggestive of what they believed.” These old builders were Churchmen, and made their Churchmanship and their belief felt in their work.

In this essay on The History of Church Steeples, we read about bells:

Some steeples were used to house the bronze or steel church bell, and that section of the steeple is called the belfry. This area of the steeple would have louvers to emit the sound of the bell on all sides of the steeple, with louver blades tilted downward to help keep out rain. Bells were located in steeples, as this was the highest place on the church; this height helped the sound to travel a farther distance, floating out over the community. The bells were used as a call to worship, to ring the time of day in the community, as a wedding peal, and as a solemn funeral toll to mark the passing of a cherished member. This is why you still see louvers in the midsection of modern steeples even though they may not have a tradition bronze bell. Some churches have replaced the traditional bell with the more versatile electronic carillons that can digitally recreate the sounds of cast bells, played as hymns, angelus, pealing bells and funeral tolls. The louvers also aid in ventilation of the steeple, which extends the durability of the exterior finishes.

I believe a church should look like a church, and that means a steeple and even a bell if possible. I know I’m a dwindling minority. Here is James A. Regester again writing about the history of church buildings in his 1908 book The Worship of the Church. The following about the church bells is from his chapter Symbolism of the Church Building

In the tower are the bells, and what the spire with its uplifted Cross says to us in silent eloquence these say in sound and music.

The office of the bell in calling to prayer and holy worship was regarded in olden time with much reverence. The use of bells for the purpose of gathering people together in large numbers appears to be of Christian origin. “Large bells hung in a tower seem to have been unknown before A.D.500. They were first made in Campania in Italy, whence the Italian name campana, a bell, and campanile, a bell-tower.

“Bells in the middle ages were sometimes dedicated to saints. They were christened with all the usual ceremonies and with much pomp; sponsors were provided, the bell was sprinkled at the font, anointed with oil, and robed in a chrisom. Superstitious as these customs would seem now, there is something fine in the simple faith which thus, in those more poetic days, consecrated to God’s service the voices which should proclaim Him far and wide over the land.” In simpler form, the custom is still frequently observed of setting apart by solemn prayer and benediction the bells which are to call men to prayer or to ring out the praises of God.

Church bells are frequently marked by appropriate inscriptions. The following, for instance, was very common in the middle ages, all these powers being attributed to bells:

“Funera plango, Fulgura trango, Sabbata pango,
Excito lentos, Dissipo ventos, Paco cruentos.”

“I mourn the dead, I break the lightning, I announce the Sabbath, I excite the slothful, I disperse the winds, I appease the cruel.”

Here are a couple of campanile photos I took while in Italy

Florence, Italy bell tower

Caption photo below: Orvieto, Italy bell tower. Notice the cross atop the tower, to the left of the tower, and atop the roof of the distant building. Click to enlarge.

If you are interested in Ecclesiastical Architecture as I am, which I have written about a few times before, here is a good series from The Christian Pundit about how and why churches and their interiors look as they do.

Ecclesiastical Architecture (1) Introduction
Ecclesiastical Architecture (2) Pulpits
Ecclesiastical Architecture (3) Sacraments
Ecclesiastical Architecture (4) Baptismal Fonts
Ecclesiastical Architecture (5) Music
Ecclesiastical Architecture (6) Lighting
Ecclesiastical Architecture (7) Pews
Ecclesiastical Architecture (8) Conclusion

Enjoy!

discernment, Uncategorized

The Herd Mentality v. Self-Control

Posted on January 26, 2017January 26, 2017 by elizabethprata

My grandparents were born in around 1900. The emigrated to the US in their 20s and soon after had accumulated enough money to buy a car. They liked to drive. However they were not so great with directions. When my grandfather didn’t know in what direction to go, my grandmother would helpfully advise, “Follow him. He looks like he knows where he’s going.”

Have you heard of the phrase, ‘herd mentality’? Wikipedia explains it,

Herd mentality, or mob mentality, describes how people are influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors.

Or this definition from The Royal Society-

Herding can be defined as the phenomenon of individuals deciding to follow others and imitating group behaviours rather than deciding independently and atomistically on the basis of their own, private information. Article- Herding, social influence and economic decision-making

We see the follow-the-crowd mentality in stock markets and even in home design trends.

Sociologists researched this phenomenon at Leeds University.

Researchers at Leeds University performed a group experiments where volunteers were told to randomly walk around a large hall without talking to each other. A select few were then given more detailed instructions on where to walk. The scientists discovered that people end up blindly following one or two instructed people who appear to know where they’re going. The results of this experiments showed that it only takes 5% of confident looking and instructed people to influence the direction of the 95% of people in the crowd and the 200 volunteers did this without even realizing it. (Source)

Herd mentality is real. Following a crowd in home decor trends is not a dangerous activity, but other follow-the-crowd activities are.

Parents often worry about their teenager falling in with the wrong crowd. That’s because they know how impressionable youths can be and how easily they can be led to certain behavior through peer pressure. It’s one reason I object so strongly to the exclusion of parents or other adults from the youth-oriented Passion conferences. This is a conference where tens of thousands of youths congregate for allegedly spiritual purposes, to receive instruction, and to engage in social justice activities. This last is helped along by the organizers having stationed many ATMs throughout the venue so the youths will donate money to social justice causes. And they do. Of course, donating to charities is not bad, but arming teenagers with credit cards, separating them from their parents, and inoculating them with incessant sermons preaching about donating to social causes, means it’s easy to induce the desired behavior from your captive subjects.

However, the herd mentality phenomenon is not restricted to youths, as the example above from Leeds University shows. Here is an example from the Bible which shows, in my opinion, just how easily led the heart and mind can be. In this example, we see how easily adults can fall prey to blindly following a crowd.

So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel. 30But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. 31And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. 32Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. (Acts 19:29-32).

The scene is Ephesus, and Paul is preaching. Ephesus was a wealthy city with numerous guilds such as coppersmiths and silversmiths. The smiths were engaged in a monetarily healthy trade in making false idols to the local deity, Artemis. Demetrius, a silversmith, had quickly seen the effect Paul’s preaching had had on the city’s new converts. They no longer bought idols of silver, and his income was affected. This could not stand. Demetrius incited a riot. The city-folk streamed into the amphitheater.

One reason I love the scriptures the way they are written is the Holy Spirit-inspired details. If you read the entire passage in context, It’s pretty dramatic. The scene is vivid. Picture any B-movie from the 1950s where the villagers are storming the castle with pitchforks. The crowd is unruly, loud,angry, and dangerous. They were also intent on making their point and the adrenaline rush of fury and tumult carried them along. But then you see the few words at the tail end of verse 32, lol.

most of them did not know why they had come together

MOST of them
did NOT know why
they were THERE

Not a few of them, not that some of them, MOST of the people did NOT know why they were headed up the hill and sitting at the local colosseum yelling their heads off.

I’m reminded of this past week’s Women March on Washington where thousands of feminists streamed to the capitol to demand nebulous ‘rights’. However, when Christian reporters and theologians who were there interviewed several women and asked them why they came, the women didn’t know. It reminded me of the riot in Ephesus all over again.

If you read to verse 34, it says But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

I’m sure you’ve ever been to a high school pep rally or a sports event. The crowd stomps the bleachers and sings ‘We will rock you’, we are the champions’ etc. We have Queen to thank for his everlasting rally cry. Listen, if you will, to the first 35 seconds or so.

I avoid loud gatherings as an adult, but in high school pep rally assemblies were compulsory. I vividly remember the reverberations of the bleachers, the stomping, how quickly the first stomp grew to a unified sound that morphed into the song. It went on for a while, maybe a few minutes. But it didn’t last long. It’s hard for a crowd to remain vigorous in its unified efforts and soon the effort fall apart into distinct voices and scattered stomps, then ended.

In Ephesus, they cried out with one voice for two hours. Just imagine if the entire football stadium was singing ‘We will rock you’ for two hours, solid.

We see another mob mentality moment in Genesis 19:4-11. The scene is Sodom and the place is Lot’s house. The mob surrounded the house where the two angels dwelt and pressed so hard against the door that the angels struck them blind, but they still groped for the door.

Imagine the scene just prior to this, though. The news that two handsome men – strangers – were at Lot’s house spread through the city like wildfire. The verse says that men from all quarters of the city came to Lot’s house. The news spread and it ignited feet. Soon the men were like pillaging villagers ready to storm the castle, or in this case, Lot’s door. An entire population rushed there, yelling, demanding, just as the people did in Ephesus.

I think these examples of herd mentality (and also the example of the angry mob that stoned Stephen in Acts 7) show just how sinful we are. Even after salvation, the tendency to follow the crowd is still present in the heart and mind, because we are still sinners and not glorified yet. I believe this is why so many passages and verses advise wisdom and self-control. I think it’s especially important when a church is considering leaders for their local body. Anyone who consistently engages in self-controlled, measured actions based on wisdom and not an unreasoning follow-the-crowd mentality is definitely leader material.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23).

Strong’s Concordance says of the word self-control here-

egkráteia (1466) – properly, dominion within, i.e. “self-control” – proceeding out from within oneself, but not by oneself.
For the believer, 1466 /egkráteia (“self-control, Spirit-control”) can only be accomplished by the power of the Lord. Accordingly, 1466 /egkráteia (“true mastery from within”) is explicitly called a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:23).

Paul talked about this exact kind of self-control to Felix in Acts 24:25. Peter talked about self-control in 2 Peter 1:5-6,

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;

It’s easy to follow a crowd. All too easy. It’s hard to withstand the stream of thousands of people headed in one direction. It takes self-control to stop either actually or metaphorically as you’re buffeted by people all around you headed in a certain direction and you’re not at all sure you want to go. It takes strength to stand quietly for a moment and think, assess, and pray for wisdom. It is very hard NOT to follow the crowd.

But always remember that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. Though we have the sinful tendency in us to easily become unreasoning animals and follow whatever crowd is doing, we have the Holy Spirit. Self-control proceeds out from within us, but is not by us. It’s Him. All him. When we rely on the Spirit to induce in us the control we need, Jesus receives glory.

history, Uncategorized

Forerunner to the Reformation: John Wycliffe

Posted on January 25, 2017January 25, 2017 by elizabethprata

Martin Luther, 1483-1546

It is Reformation year 500. Five hundred years ago this October 31st, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony within the Holy Roman Empire. Luther wrote,

Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer therein at Wittenberg, intends to defend the following statements and to dispute on them in that place. Therefore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute with him orally shall do so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Here are the actual 95 theses if you want to read them:
The 95 theses

History.com sums the Reformation up this way-

Luther spent his early years in relative anonymity as a monk and scholar. But in 1517 Luther penned a document attacking the Catholic Church’s corrupt practice of selling “indulgences” to absolve sin. His “95 Theses,” which propounded two central beliefs—that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds—was to spark the Protestant Reformation

Is there any event that is not connected in time by a previous event? Isn’t time a constant stream of events, all tumbling one after another, connected by their confinement to the visible riverbanks by the hands of God? Did the Reformation emerge all of a sudden, or were there catalysts and stepping stones laid first? Were there forerunners? I believe so.

As RC Sproul said recently, that before Luther there was Hus, (or Huss, spellings vary) who was preceded by Wycliffe, who was preceded by Augustin who was preceded by Paul who was preceded by Jesus.

The reason there are forerunners to Martin Luther and the Reformation is that Jesus never leaves Himself without a witness, and He as Master Husbandman tends soils so that there is always a soil ready to receive the Gospel. Even in “The Dark Ages”, the Gospel was doing its work in hearts. Salvations were always occurring.

Burk Parsons wrote of this connection from one era to the next, the vine as I envision it. It is planted by God and watered by Him, with men springing up along the vine as forerunners to His particular plan and path regarding the Reformation.

John Wycliffe was the morning star of the Reformation. He was a protestant and a reformer more than a century before Martin Luther ignited the Protestant Reformation in 1517. Through Wycliffe, God planted the seeds of the Reformation, He watered the seeds through John Hus, and He brought the ﬂower of the Reformation to bloom through Martin Luther. The seed of the ﬂower of the German Augustinian monk Luther’s 95 theses was planted by the English scholar and churchman John Wycliffe.

Josh Buice wrote two weeks ago that The Reformation Resulted in an Explosion of Gospel Missions. He started a preaching series in–

–2017 with an emphasis on the Reformation and how our salvation is directly connected to the work of the Reformers. R. C. Sproul writes, “The Reformation was not merely a Great Awakening; it was the Greatest Awakening to the true Gospel since the Apostolic Age.”

During the days that preceded the Reformation, the Bible had been locked away in a dark dungeon by the Roman Catholic Church. They insisted that the Word of God must be heard by the priests, who would speak it only in Latin. The Roman Catholic Church insisted that the common person was unable to understand the Word of God without the aid of a priest. However, they were unwilling to release control of the Bible, and in order to prevent anyone from getting their hands on the Word of God—they would burn people at the stake as an example to all who resisted their authority.

Under John Calvin’s leadership in Geneva Switzerland, thousands of missionaries were being trained and by 1562, over 2,000 churches had been planted in France. In 1560, the Geneva Bible was published which was greatly used in Europe and was also the Bible that was brought off of the Mayflower by the early Pilgrims of America. Through the Reformation, an explosion of gospel missions took place that shook the world.

Source Wikimedia Commons

The Reformation is an extremely important part of church history. One would think with the release of the Bible in the people’s language, the explosion of missions, the work of the Gospel in the hearts of many subsequent to the reformation, that our ecclesiology would progress in an upward trajectory. But satan does not like upward, only downward. He fights back. He fought back since the moment the first Geneva Bibles were released. And the Geneva Bible’s history is interesting in itself! It was the first Bible to be translated directly to of the Hebrew. It had extensive notes and cross references, making it the first study Bible. It was translated so that the people could read it. More here.

Sadly, 500 years after the start of The Reformation, there is currently a definite softening toward the Catholic Church by many people who should know better.

Philosopher and poet George Santayana famously said,

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense. Scribner’s, 1905: 284)

We must remain vigilant because we are not unaware of satan’s schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:11). We should learn the past in order to remember the past and to push forward with clear, honest, uncomplicated Gospel evangelization. We shouldn’t ever remain ignorant of what has happened in the past of our church history. This is the 500th year of the Reformation. Here are some resources for you to learn more:

The Heresies of the Catholic Church

Evangelical Syncretism: Rethinking the Reformation

John MacArthur and RC Sproul on Sola Scriptura and the Reformation

Undermining the Headship of Christ (The line between John Hus and Martin Luther is explained here).

A History of the Reformation, article by RC Sproul

Memoirs of a Medieval Woman: this is a biography of Margery Kempe, taken from her dictated autobiography. She was born sometime around 1373 and died after 1438, which makes her a devotee of the Catholic Church at a time when both the rise of the Lollards (Wycliffe followers) was gaining traction and also the incessant Catholic pilgrimages to Jerusalem were occurring. It is also set in the time just prior to the Council of Constance. This Council was held between 1414 and 1418, principally to reunite Christendom from the ‘too many popes’ syndrome (schism) but also to examine the teachings of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus and to reform the RCC as a reaction to the attack on the Church’s authority.

Wikipedia lists her as “an English Christian mystic, known for dictating The Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language.” Kempe wrote of it all from a first person perspective. I liked the book for its attention to vivid detail on the practices of the Catholic Church, the realities of the pilgrimage journeys to the middle East, the ecstatic visions and examination of same by any and all church authorities Margery could get to listen (anchorites, priests, bishops, other mystics like Julian of Norwich, lay people…)

discernment, Uncategorized

“God’s not in control” says Baptist theologian

Posted on January 24, 2017 by elizabethprata

The excerpt below is not a Babylon Bee article. [Babylon Bee is a satirical Christian online spoof publication). My response to the title of the article, “Theologian says God not in control”, is that if a theologian says God is not in control, he is not a theologian. Also, if God is not in control, He is not God.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:17)
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21).

Below is an excerpt from the aforementioned article, then my thoughts follow. The article is based on a new book, Scandalous Providence: The Jesus Story of the Compassion of God, written by long-term professor E. Frank Tupper. Tupper was one of the founding faculty members of the School of Divinity at the Baptist educational institution of Wake Forest, also had taught for many years prior to that in Southern Theological Seminary. He has been teaching for 42 years. He has also been privately struggling with the concept of God’s providence and sovereignty since 1965, when his father died. He later struggled with it again, when his wife Betty was fatally diagnosed with cancer.

Theologian says God not in control

Tupper’s study and experience led him to reject platitudes on suffering such as “God is in control” or “everything happens for a reason.” “I do not believe that God is in control of everything that happens in our world,” he said. “Indeed, I would argue that God controls very, very little of what happens in our world.” Tupper said part of his own struggle has been understanding why God does not act in human life today with the same kind of power and purpose as the mighty acts described in Scripture. “Why does God not act today the way the biblical traditions present God to us, particularly in the New Testament?” he asked. “Why does God not act? Because the resources are not available to God to act.”

In an interview with the Homebrewed Christian Tripp Fuller, regarding Tupper’s same book about providence, Tupper said that there have been two historic responses to God’s Providence,

The 2 leading lines for interpreting Providence was ‘well, we do not understand why this has happened’ or, ‘In some sense this is the will of God and we must accept it.’ I rejected both those ideas. Betty Tupper’s experience of suffering with cancer and dying, and the enormous impact it had on my family gave me the courage to say, “I’m going to write and interpret providence in a way that is consistent with my understanding and my faith and I will accept the opposition and the challenges that I’ll experience.” HomeBrewed Christianity podcast

In his book Scandalous Providence, Tupper categorically rejects the classic verse on Providence, Romans 8:28, that all things work together for the good of those who love God. Tupper says,

No. [Romans 8:28] does not mean: Paul does not mean that God predetermines everything that happens. Not everything that occurs is the design and intention of God.

The main leading line throughout history for the faithful believers in interpreting God’s providence is to, ahem, trust Him. Esther did. The entire book of Esther is an object lesson in trusting His promises when circumstances on the ground clearly are going in the opposite direction. Also, Job. Job trusted God through it all, even when his own wife said he should curse God and die. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego trusted His promise despite the threat of imminent death. They were providentially delivered, though the men acknowledged that God’s control was such that He might not choose to deliver them. God chose not to deliver Tupper’s father nor his wife, but that does not mean He isn’t in control. However, to Tupper, it does.

What Tupper is really saying here about providence and trust is that, ‘I had an experience that I did not like, therefore I will reinterpret the God of the Bible according to my own desires and understandings, based on my own experiences and not the promises of God as revealed in scripture.’

You can read about Tupper’s book on many different websites. It’s actually not a new book, but a massively updated version of an older one he’d written. As I said, he has been struggling with trusting God through difficult circumstances for a long time.

For this next section of the essay I want to offer insights on two important topics that Tupper’s interpretation of Providence raises. These are issues you should know about because they are so pervasive and because his influence as Seminary professor and molder of young minds is so strong.

1. Open Theism (in Arminian context)
2. Narrative Theology (morphing to to personal experiences)

Open Theism.

Open Theism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Open Theism is the thesis that, because God loves us and desires that we freely choose to reciprocate His love, He has made His knowledge of, and plans for, the future conditional upon our actions. [Ed note- more extreme version-]Though omniscient, God does not know what we will freely do in the future.

Classic Arminian, free will theology is basically Open Theism. We choose God, He reacts. The logical conclusion of a theology where we can choose to overcome our own thoroughly depraved heart (Genesis 6:5) by our own decision and not God’s supernatural ordination, is a theology where God is not in control. The first casualty in Arminian/Open Theism is the sovereignty of God. And if God is not Sovereign, the doctrine of Providence falls, too.

Speaking of narratives, it’s popular today to use the fact of Jesus’ storytelling through parables to excuse what is known as narrative theology.

Here is the definition of narrative theology, a wonky theology to begin with, before Tupper further corrupted it by showing his readers how to create a theology based on experience:

Narrative Theology.

Narrative theology

Narrative theology was a late 20th century theological development which supported the idea that the Church’s use of the Bible should focus on a narrative presentation of the faith, rather than on the development of a systematic theology. The Christian faith is thus also to be interpreted by the Christian community, and not by outside scholars or explorers. Narrative theology is typically done by those known as post-liberals.

Tupper’s book relies on narratives within the Bible to offer laypeople access to theology, which he calls “lay theology”. He says he uses narrative theology as a mechanism to communicate the fundamental concerns of scripture to the lay people. As with any mechanism, satan will use it and bring it forward even from its good foundations to foundations made from darkness and poison. So it is with narrative theology. In Tupper’s book, he strays from the straightforward interpretation of parables, (theology) to using parables as an excuse to narrate Jesus’ story, (a liberal stance) to using people’s stories as a narrative to explain Jesus. (a ridiculous stance, but inevitable if adopting narrative theology.)

As with any doctrinal error, there comes a point where its profound error becomes its fatal flaw. If we interpret evil through the lens of our own experiences and worse, construct a narrative to explain it, the skewed vision of who God is becomes fatally wounding.

Why am I going on about what may seem to you to be an obscure theologian, (but isn’t) who in no way impacts your life? Because I want you to understand something. This man has been teaching generations of young people the “truths” of God for 42 years. His journey away from the sovereignty and goodness of God’s toleration of evil means Tupper has also led impressionable youths away from it too. Many seminaries and Christian colleges today are bastions of doubt and unfaith. And I’m talking about the Professors.

God is in control of everything. Solomon says this in Proverbs 16:33,

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

This means that, we can throw the dice and we can use that as a basis for deduction, but God who sovereign over all things, even controls the roll of the dice. (Alistair Begg)

Here are some resources to help understand God’s sovereignty even in tolerating evil, death, and tragedy.

The Truth about Evil
How can a good and powerful God tolerate all the evil in the world?

In Tupper’s interview with the Homebrewed Christian, Tupper mentioned about God being love (so why does He accept evil and hate in the world…). The verse from 1 John 4:8 which says in its second part that God is love, is explained in this 90-second video from the WWUTT Pastor, Gabe Hughes.

From Ligonier, we find a list of essays dealing with the question Is God in Control?
When pain, suffering, and natural disasters occur, how can we know that God is really in control? Is He really sovereign over all things, including evil?

GotQuestions on narrative theology: Narrative theology is the idea that Christian theology’s use of the Bible should focus on a narrative representation of the faith rather than the development of a set of propositions reasoned from the Scriptures themselves or what is commonly called a “systematic theology.”

encouragement, Uncategorized

Ode to moms: helpful links

Posted on January 23, 2017January 23, 2017 by elizabethprata

I don’t have children of my own. Most women who keep blogs write about this important aspect of who they are in Christ, the role of Mom. Since I do not have children I would not presume to write about children or parenting or motherhood. I do teach children all day long and that’s been my main career in life, but that is not the same as parenting. However I know that many women read the blog, and may have parenting concerns.

I began teaching in 1983 and with a break for some years I took it back up 9 years ago. There has been a palpable decline in the family quality of childrens’ lives over the past 34 years since I began working with children and families through my career in education. I see the culture’s drastic effect on children, I see the fractured family’s effects on children. I cannot imagine being a parent in this day and age, fraught with the evils, false religions, liberal doctrines, and general chaos and trying to protect your child. I’d go insane with worry!

God cares deeply for children and intact families. How many Bible verses talk about protecting this most vulnerable demographic in society? Many! The orphans, the fatherless, or the children are spoken of in scores of verses throughout the Old Testament to the New.

See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 18:10)

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. (Exodus 22:22)

So with that, here are some links I’ve seen last week regarding children, parenting, and the issues moms say moms face. I hope you find them beneficial. 🙂

Nancy Guthrie has some Divine Words for Desperate Parents

We can teach our child the Scriptures, but we can’t be the Holy Spirit in our child’s life. … But anyone who’s been a parent for long knows parenting requires a lot more than simply following the right steps to success. To raise a child toward godliness, we need much more than the good advice parenting experts have to offer. We need what only the Scriptures have to offer.

Jennifer at One Hired Late In the Day is entering her 18th year of parenting and has some thoughts about How Our Faith Influences Our Parenting

Rachel over at the Danielthree18 blog wrote a good piece today examining whether or not it is wise for Christian parents to send their kids to public school with the idea that they be salt and light to the unsaved. She has some excellent points and food for thought, so please be sure to click on this link and read her essay. Her post prompted me to examine again the decisions that my husband and I have made regarding our own children and their education. Parenting is one of the most important roles that God gives to us, and I know that I am not alone in having a deep concern for my children and whether or not I am making the right decisions for them and most importantly, pleasing the Lord in how I am raising them.

I have written before about shepherding the minds and hearts of our children. For today’s post, I thought I would expand on that a little bit and give you some insight into our strategy of Christian parenting.

My friend who is mom of an infant recommended this Christian Living book on Facebook, and it does look very good.

Mom Enough

Are you mom enough?

The cover of Time Magazine asked this haunting question in bold red letters that hung over the startling image of a young mother breastfeeding her four-year-old. When the issue hit newsstands it re-ignited a longstanding mommy war in American culture. But it turns out this was the wrong question, pointing in the wrong direction. Here is a higher and more essential question faced by mothers: Is God God enough?

This short book by eight women explores the daily trials and worries of motherhood. In the trenches, they have learned (and continue to learn) how to treasure God and depend on his all-sufficient grace. The paradox of this book is the secret power of godly mothering. Becoming mom enough comes as a result of answering the question, “Are you mom enough?” with a firm no.

Here’s Jen Oshman with the question, What if We Kept Doing Family Devotions after Advent?

But first, let me encourage you: no one’s family worship time is pretty everyday. If your kids are poking one another with their toes and screaming out for justice, if they are picking their noses and looking at the ceiling fixture, or if they are rolling around on the floor and feigning interest, then you’re doing it right (all three of these things happened in our Advent reading time during one single evening this week).

I am on Pinterest, but I hate Pinterest. I find it awkward, clumsy, and useless (in the constant pinning and never actually getting TO the thing you want to cook/make/read/knit). I also think it is satan’s way of encouraging defeat in moms, by presenting a highly skewed picture of life that no one can really match up to. With that in mind, here’s a meme I found enjoyable this week:

Missionary to the cannibals in the New Hebrides, John G. Paton, revered his mother and father. He wrote how he learned to submit to the will and sovereignty of God through listening to his mother pray. His mother’s faith, her lifetime of devoting herself to the good of the family, and to prayer, along with his father’s teaching and faith, gave Paton his foundation and sustained him throughout terrible trials at the hands of the cannibalistic pagans he’d sailed across the world to serve.

How do you claim the promises of God for protection when your wife was equally faithful but, rather than being protected, died; and when the Gordons on Erromanga were equally trusting in those promises and were martyred? Paton had learned the answer to this question from listening to his mother pray, even before he leaned the theology that supports it. When the potato crop failed in Scotland, Mrs. Paton said to her children, “O my children, love your Heavenly Father, tell him in faith and prayer all your needs, and he will supply your wants so far as it shall be for your good and His glory” (p. 22) (source)

Moms, please know that I admire you and pray for you. Your job is one of the most important in the entire world.

discernment, Uncategorized

Franklin Graham’s unwise comment about rain

Posted on January 22, 2017January 22, 2017 by elizabethprata

Pastor Gabe Hughes at WWUTT (When We Understand The Text) had a 90-second video response to Franklin Graham’s unwise comment at the Inauguration of Donald Trump.

Here is a screen shot:

Here is WWUTT’s 90-second video. (All their videos are 90 seconds, check them out!)

As noted in the video, the rain that fell in Genesis was a judgment on all the people of the earth (except for the 8 faithful in Noah’s family). Also as noted in the video, Jesus said in Matthew 5:45 that rain falls on the just and the unjust.

God raises up leaders and He takes them down. (Daniel 2:21, Psalm 75:7). Just because President Trump won the election does not necessarily mean God is blessing him or America. God could be judging America by raising up President Trump. The same could apply to ex-President Obama. We don’t know what was in God’s mind when He raised those men up. We do not know why He allowed President Harrison to lead for only 30 days while He has allowed Queen Elizabeth II to reign for 23,725 days.

In order to state that rain is a sign of blessing at any particular moment, one would have to be able to interpret the omen. God used the Prophets of old as a sign to the people. When Moses threw down his staff and it turned into a snake, it was a sign (omen) and Pharaoh understood it as a sign. He did not interpret it correctly, of course, since he had his own wizards standing by who performed the same sign. Pharaoh interpreted that Moses’ God was as not powerful as his false god and that Pharaoh could continue to resist God with no harm, no foul. He was wrong.

And that’s the problem with interpreting omens. Without a Prophet having heard directly from God, those who are claiming that rain occurring at any given moment means this or that are in fact claiming to know the mind of God. And that is presumptuous. Here is what the Bible says about interpreting omens, excerpt from GotQuestions:

These portents occurred in the Bible, usually through God’s prophets, when it served God’s purpose. However, the Bible expressly forbids divination of any kind: “Let no one be found among you who . . . interprets omens. . . . Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord” (Deuteronomy 18:10–12). We do not live by superstition, and we should not be searching for good or evil omens. Our understanding of the spiritual world does not come through the occult. God has given us the ultimate sign of His goodness, love, and grace in Jesus Christ (1 John 4:9). The Bible is our source for spiritual insight (2 Peter 1:19–21).

It is a shame, and it is unwise that Mr Graham said this. It’s unwise not only for his own soul but because he said it while standing on a platform in which his words would be broadcast globally. If one wanted to give the world a lesson on interpreting the mind of God by divination, one could not have chosen a better moment.

I’ve written before that Graham’s partnering with Catholics at his Crusades is also indicative of a heart that does not understand what the Bible says to do and not to do. (for example, do not interpret omens as already discussed, in the case of partnering with Catholics, do not be unequally yoked, 2 Corinthians 6:14).

May the Lord in His mercy send a spirit of repentance onto Mr Graham, and dispense mercy meanwhile.

——————————–

The fruit of sin

Posted on January 21, 2017January 21, 2017 by elizabethprata

But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. (Romans 6:21)

Paul is asking this rhetorical question in the majestic section of “The Wages of Sin.” What has sin profited you? What fruit, then, has sin produced?

I’m a lover of art. I saw Caravaggio’s Bacchus in the Uffizi some years ago. Caravaggio’s Bacchus is a decadent painting, becoming more so as one gazes at it. Bacchus was the Roman god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual ecstasy, fertility and so on. Dionysus was the parallel Greek god. Here he is:

How is it decadent, one asks? We see the heavy-lidded youth, the Bacchus, reposing against his dirty sheets, with his own covering having slipped off, exposing his fleshy upper torso. He fingers the opening suggestively. His face appears ruddy, from outdoor farm work in the vineyards, or perhaps more to the point, the florid blush of too much wine. On close inspection, the bowl of fruit shows its over-ripeness. The pears are bruised and browning. The figs are burst and oozing. The peaches are in obvious decay.

Decay, rot, decomposition is the theme of the entire portrait. And anyway, it’s a false god.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Does sin bring the fruit of love?
Does sin bring the fruit of peace?
Does sin bring the fruit of patience?
Does sin bring the fruit of kindness?
Does sin bring the fruit of goodness?
Does sin bring the fruit of faithfulness?
Does sin bring the fruit of gentleness?
Does sin bring the fruit of self-control?

Can you think of any sin which brings any of the good fruit of the Spirit? Does jealousy bring love? Does bitterness bring self-control? Does gossip bring kindness? Does adultery bring peace?

Or does sin’s fruit bring decay, rot, and decomposition? The fruit of love only grows brighter as it ripens. The fruit of sin brings festering putrefaction, flies, and disease. Eventually, death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23).

Flee from that sin, sister. Resist it, slay it. God has given us His Spirit to aid us in this, and the free gift of eternal life is ours so we can enjoy His Holy self forever.