elizabethprata

death, election, encouragement, grace, infant

What happens to babies who die?

Posted on May 9, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Sinclair Ferguson on a difficult doctrine: Total Depravity in Children

Elisha Raises the Shunammite woman’s Son: Frederic Leighton

The total depravity of our children is a faith-doctrine, a biblical insight. Our natural instinct is to think of new-born children as moral and spiritual tabulae rasae, clean sheets on which to write a successful life. Admittedly the page may soon be a little blotted (the occasional temper tantrum!), but the background is still basically white, surely? Not so, according to the Scriptures: the wicked go astray from the womb and speak lies from birth, insists the psalmist.

Here is a chart comparing Arminianism and Calvinism. I’ll excerpt the part about our sin-nature.

Arminianism Free Will or Human Ability says:

Although human nature was seriously affected by the fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe, but He does not interfere with man’s freedom. Each sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses it. Man’s freedom consists of his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters; his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power to either cooperate with God’s Spirit and be regenerated or resist God’s grace and perish. The lost sinner needs the Spirit’s assistance, but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man’s act and precedes the new birth. Faith is the sinner’s gift to God; it is man’s contribution to salvation.

Calvinism: Total Inability or Total Depravity says:

Because of the fall, man is unable of himself to savingly believe the gospel. The sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God; his heart is deceitful and desperately corrupt. His will is not free, it is in bondage to his evil nature, therefore, he will not — indeed he cannot — choose good over evil in the spiritual realm. Consequently, it takes much more than the Spirit’s assistance to bring a sinner to Christ — it takes regeneration by which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Faith is not something man contributes to salvation but is itself a part of God’s gift of salvation— it is God’s gift to the sinner, not the sinner’s gift to God.

Jan Sluijters (1881-1957), Elisha and the son of the
Shunammite woman, 1904

Total depravity does not mean that all humans are all as bad as they could be. Not everyone is a Hitler, is he? There are people who are nice and compassionate and do kind things. Then there’s the Hitlers and Stalins and Pol Pots of the world. No, total depravity means that sin has touched every part of our being, totally, and we are totally unable to do anything good for God. We are all criminals in God’s eyes and in His capacity as Judge He would be righteous if He sent all humans to hell upon their death. Even children.

So what happens to children who die, if they are completely depraved but are unable to consciously and maturely respond to the Gospel?

One of the complaints I receive about the Doctrines of Grace is that God would be horribly mean to send babies to hell when they do not have the mind to even be able to contemplate the Gospel and formulate a response to it, the basis of faith and the key to entry into the Kingdom. I agree, that would be hard to swallow. But God does not send babies or children to hell. He is just, and He is sovereign, and He has a plan.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, John MacArthur was invited to the Larry King talk/interview show to try and help people make sense of the spiritual questions the event raised. In a subsequent sermon titled What Happens to Babies Who Die?, Dr MacArthur said this:

Some of you who tuned in to the Larry King Show a week ago Saturday will remember that Larry fired a question to me on the air that came out of nowhere. The question that reveals a nagging, troubling issue in the human heart. He asked me, “What about a two-year-old baby crushed at the bottom of the World Trade Center?”
I answered, “Instant heaven.”
He replied with another question. “Wasn’t a sinner?”
I again answered, “Instant heaven.”
That’s a compelling question, what about a baby crushed at the bottom of the Trade Center? What about any baby that dies? It’s an agonizing question. It’s a question that plagues Christians and non-Christians alike…what happens to babies that die?

In the essay, MacArthur shows from scripture that they go to heaven. Though they are sinners from the womb and though they have not hard or responded to the Gospel, God made a provision.

The Doctrines of Grace make me love Jesus all the more. He made a provision for the children and adults otherwise unable to cognitively understand their sin or the Gospel. God is love and His provision is demonstrates no better than the very moment an apple cheeked youngster’s laugh is stilled by death, when He receives them instantly to His arms.

Of Children:
The seed of every known sin is planted in their hearts. Robert Murray McCheyne

Of Jesus:
Never forget that there is more grace in Christ than there is sin in your heart and your child’s heart combined. Sinclair Ferguson

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Chewing up the meat and spitting out the bones- is that biblical?

Posted on May 9, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

In the Discernment department, I hear people frequently say they realize that so and so teaches some things that are bad, but some things they teach are good, so they will just take the good and throw out the bad. They call this method of learning the word of God “Chewing up the meat and spitting out the bones.” But is this how teachers should be followed or how scripture should be learned? No.

In Matthew 7:15 we read,

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

It’s a scripture we are familiar with, maybe too overly familiar. Let’s dig down into it again with a fresh eye.

Matthew 7 is the third of three chapters that comprise the Sermon on the Mount, arguably the most important sermon in the entire bible. Jesus is warning, exhorting, and teaching. By Chapter 7, He focuses on judgment/wrath, the broad and narrow road, and judging/discernment. Jesus spends a good deal of time teaching about judging wisely with good discernment. It is here in verse 7 He mentions false prophets.

He opens with the word “Beware.” When a command like this appears, we perk up to an even greater degree than usual. It’s like the word “woe”, indicating the need for special attention to what is being said.

The word “beware” refers to our Lord telling us specifically to be wary of a false prophet. He says they will be numerous and they will be hard to spot. But what is particularly dangerous about false prophets of which we should be aware?

So “Beware” it says – now, that word alone ought to let you know they’re dangerous. “Beware.” Literally, in the Greek it means, hold your mind back from. Don’t ever expose your mind to the influence of a false prophet. Don’t pay attention to, give heed to, follow, notice, devote yourself, don’t even put your mind in his vicinity. They’re dangerous, they pervert the mind, they poison the soul. (source)

People’s Temple cult leader Jim Jones

Beware means warning, danger! It tells us that extreme caution is to be employed. The action we
should be taking is not to give any quarter to any part of a false teacher’s teachings. To “hold your mind back from” … that is an interesting phrase. We know the scriptures transform us by the renewing of our mind. The mind is the first battlefield. Not the heart. See the scripture in Romans, it dovetails nicely with Matthew 7:15

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

It once again illustrates that there is a severe dichotomy. Either/or. You are either being conformed to the world, OR you are being transformed by the renewal of the mind. There is no chewing meat AND bones and then spitting out bones. Your mind will either be conformed or not. It will be transformed or not. False teaching will poison your mind or not.

And secondly, the verse says we should seek that which is good. We should seek that which is acceptable. We should seek that which is perfect.

The Matthew 7:15 warning and the Romans verse say nothing about ingesting poison just so we can get to some nugget we believe is good. It says nothing about allowing poison into our mind just so we can strain out what we deem as bad. We in our pride think we can chew meat and spit bones even though we are told to seek what is good and acceptable and perfect by the One who is Good and Acceptable and Perfect? We are not to seek what is imperfect and full of bones! We are then choosing not to be careful. This is setting ourselves to be smarter than Jesus! WE are too smart for Jesus? Let it not be so!

You see, we see the results of what they [false teachers] do in 2 Peter 2:2, “Many people follow their pernicious ways.” (source)

Many will follow the false prophets. Do we think we are so strong that we will not be one of the many? Do we think we are so strong that we will be able to ingest poison and spit it out before it affects us?
The subtly of that false prophet can even singe your garment. MacArthur

The second reason, after pride, not to follow false prophets altogether and avoid chewing on meat to spit on bones, is destruction.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

If we believe we can withstand all the warnings about false prophets, be able to detect to the smallest degree what is good and acceptable and perfect in their teachings, and to in effect be smarter than Jesus and ignore His warnings, then we are proud. And pride sets us up for falling into destruction.

In Maine where I lived for many years, there are sea urchins in the intertidal zone. These marine animals have spikes. If you step on them, they hurt. Some are poisonous. What people say who claim they can “chew the meat” of a false teacher’s teachings, and “spit out the bones” is that they have confidence in walking on kelp-covered, slick rocks in bare feet with tide and current pushing them off, and be able to perfectly balance and make progress without slipping and stepping on one of the spines. Or swallowing a bone. Pride. No, eventually they will slip in due time and they will step on a spike and they will be destroyed by the poison the urchin holds for them.

A third and most important consideration is this: if a teacher has shown themselves false by their fruit, and by God-given discernment you’ve realized this, then nothing they offer will be meat. It may look like meat, just as their garment may look like a sheep’s. But that “meat” the prideful ones claim they can chew happily will have worms, e coli, and ground glass in it. For nothing a false teacher has to say is healthy. Nothing. It might sound good…you might think it is helpful, but it is not.

A false prophet has neither a divine commission nor a divine message. He neither speaks for God or from God. He stands in his own authority speaking his own message, and it is utterly false. (source)

Utterly. False.

In the above linked source, the example is given about the horrific and tragic events in 1978 in Jonestown Guyana, where 908 people drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid and died in the jungle. These people had followed Jim Jones into his cult. Jones, that false teacher, brought them in a long slow descent from Christianity to Jones personally claiming to be Jesus, and when he said so, killed themselves.

There was a man named Tim Stoen. As John MacArthur described,

Here was this fellow attending the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and at People’s Temple at the same time. Raised in a G.A.R.B. background – a Fundamentalist, Bible-believing, Christ-honoring people – but exposing his mind to that instead of holding back his mind.

Jonestown, Guyana, Nov. 1978.
This mass suicide (304 were children) resulted in the greatest single loss of American
civilian life in a deliberate act until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001

Tim Stoen was married with a son, and the Stoens followed Jones from California to Guyana to the compound Jones had created. Eventually Grace Stoen left the cult and her husband, she defected. She battled for her son from the States. Tim left the cult year later. They battled for their son, hard, but the suicides occurred before they could get him out of the cult. John’s 6-year-old body was discovered in Jones’ cabin when the story broke.

Tim Stoen started out well. He had a large ministry in his church, he was regarded as an elder, was seen as mature and solid. However when Jones came to popularity, Stoen divided his mind. He ingested some bones with his meat. The bones will get you every time.

Stoen sadly discovered the hard way what happens when you do not hold your mind back from false teachers. He lost his marriage, his wife, and his son- all destroyed. He lost many years of valuable time he could have been working for the Lord- destroyed. He’d aided and abetted this cult leader in deceiving many- they were destroyed. Aside from the children, when the adults woke up, they were in hell.

False teaching destroys. Do not be so prideful that you think you can detect meat from bones, or even more foolishly believe that any part of a false teacher’s food is healthy for the body. It isn’t. Beware.

discern, judgment, prophecy, signs

“Discerning the Signs of the Times” by Pastor Phil Andrukaitis

Posted on May 7, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A pastor-friend from Maine recently wrote this below, what was on his heart. I agree with it. It’s on my heart too.

In Hosea 5:12, the LORD promised to bring moth-like judgment upon Israel.

But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

Gill’s Exposition explains this long-slow kind of judgment.

Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth,…. Which eats garments, penetrates into them, feeds on them privately, secretly, without any noise, and gradually and slowly consumes them; but at last utterly, that they are of no use and profit: this may signify the various things which befell the ten tribes in the reigns of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah, which secretly and gradually weakened them

It is not hard to imagine the Lord employing the same kind of judgment on America and other nations as we deepen our apostasy and turn from Him.

Pastor Andrukaitis

The author of the piece below, Pastor Phil Andrukaitis, is senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, South Portland Maine. Please read the below and see if you agree also.

——————————–

“Discerning the Signs of the Times”

When hostile, threatened, religious leaders questioned Jesus about His identity and ministry, Jesus responded, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red;’ and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” (Matthew 16:1-3).

I’m reminded of an earlier time during the initial reign of King David [1011 BC – 971 BC], when the men of Issachar, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, were identified as those “who had an understanding of the times…” (1st Chronicles 12:32).

Question: I wonder how many Christians understand the present times in which we live.

In my devotional reading this morning, my heart was moved by King Josiah’s response when the Book of the Law [God’s Word] had been found in the house of the LORD, while it was being restored by faithful servants.

Evidently, during his grandfather’s 55-year reign as king [Manasseh] and his father’s 2-year reign [Amon], the Book of the Law was lost because these two kings, like many kings before them, had served idols, seduced the nation to follow after other gods, and shed much innocent blood throughout the nation. However, when Hilkiah the high priest found the Book of the Law, he brought it to the attention of King Josiah.

As the Book of the Law was read to King Josiah, the Scriptures says that Josiah’s heart was tender. In addition, Josiah humbled himself before the LORD when he heard what lay ahead for the nation – judgment and desolation because the nation had turned away from God Almighty and had forsaken His Word. And Josiah wept before God and he tore his clothes (2nd Kings 22:1-20). Judgment was on the doorstep of the nation. Judgment was certain. God had set the date.

Questions: First, how do we respond when the Word of God is read? Think about it. Are our hearts tender towards the Word? Do we humble ourselves before God? Do we weep and grieve over the sins in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in our nation? Do we desire spiritual and numerical growth for the body of Christ?

Second, I wonder how oblivious God’s people are towards the events unfolding in our world today. I am not an alarmist who is crying, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Rather, my cry is, “Jesus is coming! Jesus is coming!”

Consider the sins of our nation for just a moment.

ABORTION: We have slaughtered nearly 55 million innocent infants in their mother’s wombs in the past 42 years, all for the sake of “protecting a woman’s choice.” This is a most damnable grievance before God. God is not going to turn away from the innocent cries of these infants. I praise God that these little ones who have been forsaken are in the presence of Jesus.

GBLT: We have cut loose the mooring lines that held this nation firm to the biblical, moral foundation by forsaking the Bible. The LORD God identifies these lifestyles an abomination in His eyes.

SELF: As sinners, we are prone to demote God in our lives and promote ourselves as “gods,” choosing to follow our sinful passions with a heart full of pride. Consequently, every imaginable sin flows out from our hearts and through our lives.

Listen, America is under God’s judgment. The Lord warned ancient Israel that if His people turn away from Him and forsake His Word, God would bring upon them the following curses (Deuteronomy 28): A state of confusion, diseases, natural calamities, rampant domestic violence, economic collapse, and evil rulers.

While these curses were specifically given to ancient Israel, principally speaking, our nation is experiencing the same type of judgments. Consider the evil rulers throughout our nation, the state of confusion and corruption within government, the growing unrest in our country, and the increasing disrespect for authority in our land.

I believe our nation is on the verge of a global economic collapse. I believe government is waiting for the right opportunity to impose martial law in our country. And I believe the church is on the threshold of her glorious hour, especially when God visits our nation with judgment. May the church of Jesus Christ do away with its stupid, petty fights and truly demonstrate that they are Christians, known by their love for one another and others.

I believe it is too late for America. However, it is not too late for individuals to return to the Lord. Confess your sins and your role in the moral collapse of our nation. Believe that Jesus died for you, paying your sin debt by being crucified on the cross. The Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). Believe that Jesus rose from His grave, as this is God the Father’s proof that Jesus’ sacrifice was acceptable and that Jesus has conquered death, sin, and the grave. Moreover, the Lord is willing to forgive the humble, repentant sinner who comes to Jesus in faith. Go on, surrender your life to Him and know the forgiveness and peace that comes with knowing God through a personal relationship with Jesus.

——————————————-

By Pastor Phl Andrukaitis, Pastor First Baptist Church South Portland, ME. Phil enjoys fishing and target shooting. His passion is making disciples. As a former Marine, his motto is “Honor, courage and commitment are ‘corps’ values that build character. Phil has been married to Sally for over thirty years.

(UPDATED) Here come the female prophetesses! Thanks a lot Henry Blackaby, Beth Moore, and continuationists

Posted on May 6, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Update at bottom.
—————————————
Thanks Henry Blackaby.

Thanks Beth Moore.

Thanks, satan.

/sarcasm.
Lifetime television Network has ordered a docu-series about female preachers. This from TV Insider.

Lifetime is looking for an “Amen” with its new woman-preacher-focused docu-series. Preach follows four Ohio “Prophetesses” as they tend to their respective flocks, healing wounds both physical and psychic.

Prayers are about to be answered with Lifetime’s all-new docu-series Preach, premiering Friday, June 5th, at 10pm ET/PT. Produced by CORE Media Group, the show follows four powerful female leaders who believe God has given them the ability to heal the sick, see the future and rid people of their addictions. Known as “Prophetesses,” these women speak as interpreters through whom the will of God is expressed. In order for their legacy to continue, they must enlist protégés and teach them how to carry on their gift. These “Queens of the Church” each have different styles and their own special way of delivering God’s message, but all are united in their love of the Lord.

The Prophetesses and protégés featured are:

Belinda Scott (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) – Belinda considers herself a Major Prophetess who has given council to politicians and celebrities across the country. She has the ability to predict child birth and specializes in blessing the wombs of barren women. Belinda’s protégé, Hadassah Elder, grew up Muslim so adjusting to new life as a Christian protégé will have its challenges.

Taketa Williams (Columbus, Ohio) – Taketa has been called the “Beyonce of the Preaching World” and touts a global following. She trains her protégé with a strict hand and isn’t afraid to drop someone if they don’t come up to her standards. Her protégé, Rebecca Hairston, is a single mother with three children.

Linda Roark (Trenton, Ohio) – Linda’s specialty is delivering people from the street and bringing them to God. Known as the “Blue-Eyed Soul Sister,” she has been told that she “looks white but preaches black,” and is admired in African-American churches for her ability to roar and get the room standing on their feet. Linda’s protege, Angel Pound, had a rough start in life. A former drug addict who has now turned her life around, she is still haunted by a past that threatens her chances of becoming a Prophetess.

Kelly Crews (Cleveland, Ohio) – Kelly is Belinda’s former protégé who is now building a ministry of her own. The only single Prophetess in the group, she has trouble finding a man who can handle her gift. Kelly’s protégé, Stacey Williams, is newly married and pregnant and struggles with making her prophetic training a priority.

Back to Blackaby. In October 1990, Henry Blackaby and Claude T. King published a book called “Experiencing God.”

Here is the blurb:

“Revised and expanded, this classic study guides readers to experience a relationship with God through which they come to know and do His will by learning to recognize when He is speaking.”

Blackaby had opened the door to Mysticism and it swept the conservative churches like wildfire. His book, and Blackaby’s influence through it, cannot be underestimated. Lifeway published this in 2013:

Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, the best-selling LifeWay resource first released in 1990, was written by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. Experiencing God has touched and changed millions of lives and thousands of churches around the world. The workbook has sold more than 7 million copies, is available in more than 45 languages and has been used in almost every denomination.

They are even making a film about the impact this book has had.

Gary Gilley reviewed Blackaby’s book in three parts, examining Blackaby’s misuse of scripture, his neo-Orthodoxy, and his mysticism. Experiencing God cannot to be consumed safely, brethren. Here is Gilley-

The appeal of Blackaby’s ideas is that we can experience a deeper reality of the presence and voice of God. Unfortunately, Blackaby does not derive most of his thoughts from Scripture. … Experiencing God is a book that is full of errors, biblically unsupportable assertions, incredible statements and story-theology (views based upon anecdotal accounts rather than upon Scripture).

Here are a few quotes about the emphasis Blackaby puts on experience over the Bible-

“Knowing God only comes through experience as he reveals Himself to me through my experiences with Him”.
“If you have trouble hearing God speak, you are in trouble at the very heart of your Christian experience”.
“If anything is clear from a reading of the Bible, this fact is clear: God speaks to His people…God does speak to His people, and you can anticipate that He will be speaking to you also.”

However the impact of this door Blackaby cracked open led, for example, to Beth Moore’s widening it with her prophesying. Just as Experiencing God was gaining traction, Beth Moore’s rise to popularity began. Moore began to say “I believe” more and more often, rather than “scripture says.” As time went on and she was not corrected for her own misuse of scripture, her neo-Orthodoxy, and her mysticism, she got bolder. Now Moore is flat-out prophesying, and her actions on stage or in church do not differ one bit from the ladies who are going to be featured in the upcoming docu-series. Except … Moore is accepted by conservative circles (as areBlackaby’s lessons on how to “listen to God”).

Why do I say thanks Blackaby, thanks Moore? Because they opened the door to this continuationism that even the most conservative, evangelical corners of the faith are now accepting. Because two credible teachers with bona-fide credentials and the Southern Baptist Convention behind them, prophesied, taught prophesying, and continue to demonstrate prophesying. They normalized it. They were early mystics infiltrating the most conservative quarters. Were they the only people prophesying in the 1990s? No, but they were the most credible. The thought was, ‘If it is OK for them to prophesy, receive direct revelation, if it’s a normal Christian thing, then it must be all right, notwithstanding the nutcases flopping around on the floor over there in Charismania-land.”

There are/were/will be three sets of spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit to the believers. One set are works kinds of gifts, the gifts of mercy and helps and administration, for example. Another set given are those involving words, such as preaching, teaching, and exhorting, for example. A third set were tongues, interpreting tongues, miracles, and prophesying. It is this third set that is under contention by continuationists vs. cessationists.

The group of people who say the SIGN gifts have ceased (and sign gifts only have ceased) do so based on the authority of scripture, explaining that these particular gifts were given to lay a foundation of the church through the apostles. Those gifts given were not in and of themselves for the body of believers for all time, but to authenticate the apostles’ authority in having been sent by God. Even as the apostles were dying out, and the New Testament progressed, the “sign” gifts were ending. This was all explained in detail in the Strange Fire Conference held at Grace Community Church in fall of 2013.

Continuationists believe that the sign gifts have continued unabated since the first century church. They believe they are the same in quality and quantity as occurred when Peter raised his mother-in-law to life or when Paul healed the sick. And that they are going on now.

One of the charges that continuationists make is that the kind of prophesying Moore does is in line with the Bible, but that the kind of prophesying (and healing and tongues) that a Benny Hinn type does is not. That when a statement is made like Blackaby offers (“God told me”), it’s simply one of a long line of continuing statements Jesus is continuing to make personally to those whom He chooses, but when a prophetess from Ohio lays hands and ‘heals’ a barren womb, it’s not.

The only problem is, the barn door is either open or closed. Once you open the door to the notion that God is continuing to speak, you open the door to ALL of it. As Phil Johnson said, there is no safe zone regarding extra-biblical activity. All those who accepted Blackaby and Moore’ sign giftings must now look in the mirror and see these 4 prophetesses and all their kind…and answer to scripture for “providing cover for aberrant people and movements in some of the most problematic districts of the charismatic community”.

The continuationist- cessationist discussion aside, one would think it wold be obvious that the 4 prophetesses documented in the upcoming series are easily seen to be false. I used to think that it’d be obvious that a devotional claiming to be written in 1st person Jesus is false too, but Jesus Calling has been on the best seller list for ten years, so I take nothing for granted anymore in the discernment department.

So here it is: the women featured on the Preach docu-series ARE FALSE and in no way represent CHRISTIANITY. They are wolves come to get your money and destroy your faith. A side benefit for satan is that they tarnish the Christian faith altogether.

How can I say that? The Bible says women are not to preach.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. (1 Timothy 2:12)

In listening to Alistair Begg last weekend he mentioned about the false teachers and prophets. This verse,

Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. (Titus 1:11)

The phrase their mouths must be stopped is actually referring to a muzzle, like one puts on a dog, because false teachers are dogs and worse.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary:

mouths … stopped—literally, “muzzled,” “bridled” as an unruly beast (compare Ps 32:9).
subvert … houses—”overthrowing” their “faith” (2Ti 2:18). “They are the devil’s levers by which he subverts the houses of God”

This is where unchecked mysticism gets us. The rampant Charismania won’t stop with these four women, it didn’t stop with Blackaby and Moore, after all. It will go on and get worse and worse.

Lord, please stop Belinda Scott’s, Taketa Williams’, Linda Roark’s, and Kelly Crews’ mouths.

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UPDATE

Between prayer and civic activism, it seems that Lifetime has canceled the show.

Controversial Lifetime Show ‘Preach’ Canceled After 15,000 People Sign Petition; Prophetess Reacts

Tachina Carter posted a petition on change.org. She said:

“The IMAGERY on this show is a TRAVESTY to the Christian Community. The women aka prophetesses are making a MOCKERY of the church and promoting foolish behavior that is not necessarily a true representation of the REAL power of God,” noted Carter’s petition. “Cameras do NOT belong in the church filming the ‘spiritual’ things that society as a whole does not understand. By airing this show it will cause more harm than good to the Christian community who already has a difficult time in sharing ‘The Good News’ of Jesus Christ to the masses.”

“Prophetess” Belinda Scott reacts:

“… I watch hateful people who say they love the Lord, type like that FROG typing at that machine. …TURN UP ON ‪#‎PREACHTV‬! A show that is not mocking the church, but exploring the lives of believers in the Church and hear me out first,” Scott wrote. “The word reality is this: the state of being real, a real event or state of affairs, One, such as a person, an entity, or an event, that is actual. Now, do I hear from God? YES, did He call me to be a PROPHETESS. YES, have I and Do I hear God’s voice concerning events, people and issues? YES! Did I see these attacks against us coming? YES! Is there a harvest on the way? YES!!!”

Yes there is a harvest. It will be very dire, bloody, and heartbreaking for the false prophets. And false prophetesses. Titus 1:10-11,

For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.

go in and com out, I am the door, threshing floor, winepress

Jesus is the Door, part 2: they will go in and come out

Posted on May 5, 2015May 17, 2026 by elizabethprata

I am still meditating on Jesus as the Door. It is a beautiful statement.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. John 10:9

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary says:

Many who hear the word of Christ, do not understand it, because they will not. But we shall find one scripture expounding another, and the blessed Spirit making known the blessed Jesus. Christ is the Door. And what greater security has the church of God than that the Lord Jesus is between it and all its enemies? He is a door open for passage and communication. Here are plain directions how to come into the fold; we must come in by Jesus Christ as the Door. By faith in him as the great Mediator between God and man.

What does ‘go in and come out’ mean? Is it that we will go in and come out of salvation? Not so! Our salvation is eternally secure.

Romans 8:28-30- We find in those verses that everyone who has been redeemed by Jesus Christ, without exception, will be glorified. (MacArthur: Is Your Salvation Secure?)

So what can coming and going mean?

Pulpit Commentary:

“Go in and out” is a phrase frequently used “to denote the free use of an abode by one who is at home in the house” (Deuteronomy 28:6; Deuteronomy 31:2; Acts 1:21). The believer who enters into fellowship with God, and is “saved,” does not “go in and out” of that state, but can as a child share by turns the Divine repose of the home.

In listening to Steve Lawson preach on the verse, going in and out also means being able to freely conduct activities in the wider sphere of the community. People can go to the marketplace and do business (1 Corinthians 10:25, Acts 16:19), travel, thresh, and plant, to name a few examples. We remember how Gideon was so afraid of the constantly marauding Midianites that he threshed inside the winepress.

A threshing floor at a high place

The threshing-floors—open circular places in the fields where the corn was trodden out by oxen—would naturally be the first places where an invading enemy would come to forage, as in 1 Samuel 23:1, says Ellicott’s Commentary.

When threshing, the wheat is thrown high in the air and the wind blows away the chaff and the kernels fall to the ground. This would have been a wonderful sign, akin to a smoke signal, to the armies coming to forage.

Threshing activity in the fields would have been a dead giveaway to the
advance party of any enemy army

Gideon was fearful of going in and out, so he chose to thresh in the winepress. Winepresses were sunk into the ground and walled by stone. There would have been no wind to blow the chaff and the confined space would have made threshing very difficult. This is one example of the hardship of those who cannot go in and come out.

winepresses were not suitable for threshing, but Gideon felt so afraid
he could not go in and come out safely.

Mr Lawson preached this verse just a few days after the Boston Marathon bombings. He said that the entire city was on lockdown. People were simply not allowed on the streets. Not a car, not a person could be found. Police presence was everywhere. The citizens could not go in and come out. It as the same during the recent Baltimore City riots. There was a city-wide curfew and after that hour no one was allowed on thee streets.

who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” (Numbers 27:17)

Imagine when the promise in John 10 is fulfilled! For both Israel and the Church, we will be in perfect safety. No persecution, no attacks, no armies. Just peace in green pastures and rest! We will go in and come out, and all because JESUS made it secure, forever.

discernment

"It Matters Who We Share, Pin, and Re-Tweet"

Posted on May 5, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Please check out Michelle Lesley! What I have read so far is sterling stupendous. Here is a taste.

When I see friends posting and re-posting quotes from false teachers, I go into fits of agony. In this essay, she writes about how important it is to be mindful and careful of who we re-post, re-tweet, and otherwise promote on social media. It matters, for five reasons.

It Matters Who We Share, Pin, and Re-Tweet

Scroll…scroll…wince…

Scroll…scroll…wince…

I find myself wincing a bit when I see people –who I know genuinely love Jesus—sharing, pinning, and re-tweeting quotes from false teachers such as Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes, and Christine Caine, just to name a few. Why? What’s wrong with the encouraging, even biblical, at times, things these people say? … But, still, the quotes we share and the people who said them matter. Why?

In this post, we learn 7 Godly Responses When Someone Says You’re Following a False Teacher

Or this-

Five Reasons It’s Time to Start Exercising “Moore” Discernment

I’m a sucker for lists.

Jeff Maples at Psalm 12 Outreach posted an excellent essay titled The rise of the feminine Church of Eden. I’ve written about the “Christian Feminists” before, notably in a three-part essay. I’d compared what these women say to what they do, and to scripture and despite their protestations and Christianese language, they are living a very feminist life. However, Mr Maples takes it from a different perspective, a man’s. He urges husbands to step up and provide the obviously missing oversight to their wives so they would not be taken in by false doctrines these feminist teachers and preachers promote. It is a very good article.

The End Time: How the Christian secret feminists are reforming the definition of biblical womanhood. Part 1

No Compromise Radio: Where is Beth Moore’s Husband?

good shepherd, I am the door, sheep, shepherd, the worthless shepherd

Jesus as Shepherd, and I AM the Door

Posted on May 4, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Shed door, inside are sheep! EPrata photo

To plumb the Bible’s depths is such a treasure and a pleasure. It never ends. I’ve been studying about the Shepherd and one of His I AM statements, “I AM the door”.

The Bible mentions shepherds and shepherding over 200 times. Jesus uses the metaphor of the Shepherd often, and said here in arguably the most famous statement,

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)

Did you ever notice there were a lot of shepherds in the bible? There were even the unnamed shepherds watching their flocks by night, the first recipients of the Good News.

Numerous biblical characters are associated with the occupation of shepherding: Abel (Gen. 4:2), Abraham (Gen. 13:7), Isaac (Gen. 26:20), Jacob and his sons (especially Joseph, Gen. 30:36; 46:32), Laban (and his daughter Rachel, Gen. 29:9), Moses (Exod 3:1), and David (1 Sam. 16:11). Source Holman treasury of key Bible words, Carpenter, E. E.

Shepherds’ work was never ending, lonely, and dangerous. They had few tools, the rod as a crook to extracting sheep from difficulty and the staff or club for fending off wild animals; (1Samuel 17:34-37). We know David also had a slingshot. Shepherds also had pouch for food and used their wrap as a cloak and also a blanket.

There was not a lot of grass so shepherds had to move the flock often. Sheep are followers. If one sheep walks over a cliff the rest will follow. They don’t defend themselves against prey, they simply huddle up and then there’s a slaughter. They are scared of moving water and will only drink from still water, (“He maketh me lie down near still waters”) but if they fall into moving water they will drown.

EPrata photo

When night-time came the shepherd had two options. Using one of his tools, the rod, he could lead the sheep (never drive them) into a sheepfold in the field. (Luke 2:8) This was simply a crudely made rock enclosure, usually a circle, so-high and topped with thorns to prevent prey or robbers scaling it to get in (John 10:1).

The shepherd brought the sheep to the fold one by one. He’d let down his rod to bar it from coming in, and he would inspect the sheep from head to toe. He was looking for injuries, disease, or anything that might need attention. The lanolin, a waxy substance the sheep excrete to keep their wool dry, often hid cysts or cuts, so he had to closely inspect each sheep before lifting up his rod to allow them entry.

Just as the lost are closely examined at the Great White Throne Judgment as seen in Revelation 20:11-15. The saved are allowed in but we are still inspected. (Romans 14:10-12, 2 Corinthians 5:10)

The shepherd also counted the sheep as they went in, to see if any were still out there, or for tithing purposes. (Matthew 18:12; Jer. 33:13).

I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. (Ezekiel 20:37)

And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. (Leviticus 27:32)

The sheepfold had no door. The shepherd placed his rod and staff across the opening and bedded down at the threshold, becoming the door.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9)

I’ll discuss the going in and out in another blog essay. The other option was to lead the sheep to a community sheepfold or a privately owned sheepfold in town. (Zephaniah 2:6). Sometimes the shepherd would make use of his lean-to or another enclosure in town, going through the same process with the rod as each sheep entered. This time, the shepherd would have hired a hireling to watch the sheep at night, and he’d go to his own bed until morning. Sometimes hirelings were not worthy and ran away. (John 10:13)

EPrata photo. Actual sheepfold door, with wheelbarrow

In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin, the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks shall again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the Lord (Jeremiah 33:13)

He is the Good Shepherd. He is the door, where inside the sheep are counted, examined, protected, loved, and cared for.

earthquakes, michigan earthquake, prophecy, volcanoes

Rare quake shakes Michigan, "strongest ever". Other earth updates

Posted on May 2, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

What Was That Rumble? Officials Confirm 4.2 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Michigan
May 2, 2015 12:42 PM

Source

KALAMAZOO (WWJ) – If you thought you felt an earthquake on Saturday — you did. And It was one of the strongest quakes ever experienced in Michigan. Officials with the United States Geological Survey said an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 and a depth of focus of 5.9 km was measured around 12:23 p.m. about nine miles southeast of Kalamazoo. Multiple residents in several different regions beyond Kalamazoo — from Mount Pleasant and Sterling Heights to Lansing and even as far as Cleveland, Ohio — reported feeling a rumble and the ground shake for between five and 10 seconds. No damage or injuries have been reported. The strongest earthquake in Michigan history was a 4.6 magnitude in nearly the exact same location in August 1947.

History of earthquakes in Michigan
The U.S. Geological Survey says the earliest record of earthquake tremors in Michigan came from a series of shocks in Missouri about 1811.

In 2010 a large earth crack appeared in Upper Michigan.
One day the land was flat and filled with trees shooting straight into the air. Twenty-four hours later there’s a 600-foot-long crack, 4-feet deep twisting its way through the woods – and those vertical trees are now pointed 30 degrees left and right where the earth has mounded 15 feet high. No, it’s not a disaster movie; it’s what happened Monday at the home of Eileen Heider on Bay de Noc Road in Birch Creek. Heider was sitting in her recliner watching TV at about 8:30 that morning. “The chair shook for a few seconds and I thought the spring in the chair went,” she said. … The next day Heider’s friend, Doug Salewski, found a hole in the ground and a 200-yard crevasse a short ways away which wasn’t there before. Heider went to investigate and said the crack was three-feet wide and about five-feet deep in spots.

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Steve Herman, reporter for Voice of America, Asia, reports, USGS: M6.1 #quake SE of #Japan (Too small to trigger significant tsunami).

LONDON: An earth tremor of magnitude 5.7 struck 185km south-southeast of Japan’s Izu islands on Saturday (May 2), the United States Geological Survey said. The USGS at first put the quake at 6.1, but later revised it to a weaker reading. The tremor was at a shallow depth of 10km.

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Underwater Volcano May Be Erupting Off Oregon
An underwater volcano off the coast of Oregon has risen from its slumber and may be spewing out lava about a mile beneath the sea. Researchers were alerted to the possible submarine eruption of the Axial Seamount, located about 300 miles (480 kilometers) off the West Coast, by large changes in the seafloor elevation and an increase in the number of tiny earthquakes on April 24. Geologists Bill Chadwick, of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and Oregon State University, and Scott Nooner, of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, successfully forecast the eruption in a blog post in September 2014.

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You might remember the Japan 9.0 Quake of 2011 shifted the earth off its axis, shortened the day and moved the island 8 feet. Is anything too hard for the LORD? (Jeremiah 32:27).

Nepal Earthquake Shrank Mount Everest, Lifted Areas Near Kathmandu 3 Feet
Nepal’s massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake transformed the land the was shaken by the natural disaster, pushing areas near the city of Kathmandu higher in elevation and making Mount Everest slightly shorter. It won’t be enough to unseat Everest as the world’s tallest peak, but according to studies performed after last weekend’s temblor, the mountain is now an inch shorter than before the quake. On the other hand, some locations just outside Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu were lifted 3 feet higher than before the tragic event, the study also found.

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Lava lake on Hawaii’s volcano overflows in spectacular show
HONOLULU (AP) — A lake of lava on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been rising over the past week and, at times, overflowing in a spectacular show. Video posted online by visitors shows lava splashing over the side of the vent rim. Janet Babb, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said Thursday that this is the first time lava from this vent has come into view from a public platform within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii’s Big Island. “It’s always been out of view for visitors who were in the park public viewing areas,” she said. But this past week, because of lava is rising inside the volcano, the lava lake rose high enough that it was visible, she said. The last time molten lava was visible in the crater was in 1982 when a fissure erupted. The last time there was a lake was in 1974.

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Chile’s Calbuco Volcano erupts for third time in 8 days

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Bulusan volcano erupts
Mount Bulusan in the province of Sorsogon erupted on Friday morning, causing an explosion of steam and ash that lasted five minutes followed by 40 volcanic quakes, government seismologists said. While the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) did not raise the alert level at the volcano, it warned the public against venturing into Mount Bulusan’s four-kilometer permanent danger zone because of possibility of sudden explosion. Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, told The Manila Times that the explosion scattered ash in Puting Sapa and Sangayon villages of Juban town and in Cogon, Gulang-Gulang and Tinampo villages of Irosin town. “This is just a minor explosion [that] coincided with Labor Day celebrations. We’re closely monitoring the [volcanic] activity if it will escalate in the coming days,” he said.

Around 10:30 a.m., when the crater became visible, dirty-white steam was seen coming out of it. Phivolcs seismologists said Mount Bulusan, one of the most active volcanoes in the country, exploded at 8:09 a.m. The volcano has erupted 15 times since 1885 and is considered as the 4th most active volcano in the Philippines after Mayon, Taal and Kanlaon. Bulusan last erupted in 2011.

bible, hermeneutic, life verse, what this verse means to me

Rejecting "Life verses" and "What this verse means to me" because interpreting the Bible is not a Rorschach test

Posted on May 2, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Hermeneutics. It’s not a word you hear often inside of churches. In our watered down state, preachers and pastors rarely use the “big words” any more. If they do, they’re abashed and even apologize for saying theological words like ‘justification’ or ‘inerrancy.’ However hermeneutics is a battleground in our continued spiritual warfare against the schemes of the devil. You have to know what it is.

From the Compact Dictionary Doctrinal Words by Terry L. Mithe, hermeneutics is

From the Greek hermeneutikos, “interpretation.” Hermeneutics is the science of the study and interpretation of Scripture, the branch of theology that prescribes rules by which the Bible should be interpreted. Biblical hermeneutics strives to formulate guidelines for studying scripture that help recover the meaning a biblical text had for its original hearers.

There are three essays and a quote regarding hermeneutics I came across yesterday which illuminate the practice of hermeneutics and also illustrates the problems today with casual interpretation and practices infiltrating the Christian life, such as “life verses” and “what this verse means to me”.

1. Erin Benziger at Do Not Be Surprised and her personal experience of being taught a verse that had a particular meaning to the teacher and the teacher only
2. John MacArthur explaining the fallacy of teaching ‘What does this verse mean “to me?”‘
3. Craig A. Parton comparing the similarity of the principles behind legal interpretations and biblical hermeneutics

The first is from Friday’s This N That posting by Erin Benziger at Do Not Be Surprised. She wrote,

I recently attended a simulcast event for a popular women’s ‘Bible teacher.’ Not long after I settled into my seat, a woman from the host church stood up to welcome us and to share with us her ‘life verse.’ The divine irony of this was that the most recent episode of Equipping Eve, in which I discussed the life verse craze, was airing that very same day. I couldn’t help but smile, but my amusement was short-lived as I heard this woman say, “Now, what this verse means to me is…”

I listened to this most recent episode of Equipping Eve regarding live verses (and labyrinths) and it’s a good episode.

Biblical interpretation is not a Rorschach test “What do you see in the inkblot?”

Benziger then went on to post-

So, what does John MacArthur say about the ‘what does this verse mean to you’ method of interpreting Scripture?

I read MacArthur’s essay, it’s good. I highly recommend it. Here is an excerpt:

What Does This Verse Mean “to Me”?
Titus 1:9, Romans 12:1-2 June 16, 2009

That’s a fashionable concern, judging from the trends in devotional booklets, home Bible study discussions, Sunday-school literature, and most popular preaching. The question of what Scripture means has taken a back seat to the issue of what it means “to me.” The difference may seem insignificant at first. Nevertheless, our obsession with the Scripture’s applicability reflects a fundamental weakness. We have adopted practicality as the ultimate judge of the worth of God’s Word.

In just one sentence, MacArthur punctures the practice. We cannot adopt a scripture because it has personal applicability to us and dispense with other verses because they don’t. MacArthur continues,

No believer can apply truth he doesn’t know. Those who don’t understand what the Bible really says about marriage, divorce, family, child-rearing, discipline, money, debt, work, service to Christ, eternal rewards, helping the poor, caring for widows, respecting government, and other teachings won’t be able to apply it. Those who don’t know what the Bible teaches about salvation cannot be saved. Those who don’t know what the Bible teaches about holiness are incapable of dealing with sin. Thus they are unable to live fully to their own blessedness and God’s glory. True doctrine transforms behavior as it is woven into the fabric of everyday life. But it must be understood if it is to have its impact. The real challenge of the ministry is to dispense the truth clearly and accurately. Practical application comes easily by comparison.

Solid biblical hermeneutics searches for truth under the premise of “What did God intend for me to know about Himself in this passage?” versus today’s practice of me-centered interpretations asking “What does this verse mean to me?” The latter leads to a false kind of open-mindedness regarding interpretation. In theology at some point you need firmness, it’s imperative to obtain a settled authoritative stance on at least the fundamentals of the faith.

Dogmatic theology gets its name from the Greek and Latin word dogma which, when referring to theology, simply means “a doctrine or body of doctrines formally and authoritatively affirmed.”

Biblical hermeneutics appropriately conducted leads to an illumination of the scriptures which leads to a Spirit-settled understanding which leads to an authoritative witness with conviction. S. Lewis Johnson this in his sermon “Paul’s Right to Compensation.” In highlighting the importance of dogmatism he compared the ridiculousness of open-minded non-dogmatism in the secular world:

Now, I’ve been talking like I’m dogmatic, haven’t I? I’ve been trying to inject a little bit of the apostolic dogmatism in it. The world has little use for people without convictions when — for example, when your child becomes very, very sick and you want to call a doctor, you don’t call a doctor who is open-minded about personal disease, do you? Or we don’t send our children to school if we know the teachers are open-minded about the multiplication tables and things like that. We don’t do that. We want someone that we have confidence in…

The third piece I stumbled across was an excellent discussion of the science of the interpretation of Law, by Craig A. Parton from Patrick Henry College. It seems to have been written about ten years ago, on the heels of an important Supreme Court decision. It’s titled,

Law & Culture: Justice Antonin Scalia Vs. The Postmodern Biblical Critic

And Why It Is Not “Just A Matter Of Your Interpretation”

Remember, hermeneutics is the science of the study and interpretation of Scripture, the branch of theology that prescribes rules by which the Bible should be interpreted. There are prescribed rules for interpreting Law, as well. Why are we content with leaving the interpretation of medical issues and legal issues to the doctors and lawyers, intuitively understanding that their years of training and education allow them this right, yet when it comes to the Word of God, it’s a free-for-all? Mr Parton wrote in his introduction,

[T]he issue that defined the end of last century and defines our current day is one that few Christians could have ever seen coming. It was, simply, the question of hermeneutics or interpretation. As powerful efforts were made by historical, legal and literary apologists (e.g. the likes of Lewis, Chesterton, and Montgomery) to establish the facticity of Christian revelation and its utter and complete trustworthiness, the enemy was forced to shift the field of battle. Instead of launching frontal assaults on the sufficiency of the evidence for the case for Christianity (a difficult chore indeed in light of the evidence for the resurrection alone and its fundamental legal and evidential adequacy), the questions surrounding interpretation sought to make the inquiry futile–or worse, just another viewpoint in the marketplace of relativistic worldviews…

Scalia has taken an approach to the interpretation of the Constitution that is directly in line with the traditional “historical grammatical”school of creedal Christianity, a method engaged in by serious Biblical interpreters for centuries prior to the Age of the Enlightenment.

There are valuable lessons to be learned from how Justice Scalia has articulated his position and how it has stood up to the postmodernist arguments of the likes of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and Professor Lawrence Tribe of the Harvard Law School. Scalia’s approach is a powerful apologetical anecdote to postmodernism and its oft-used and abused mantra that “even if the New Testament text is reliable, ultimately it all comes down to a matter of interpretation and interpretation is a subjective undertaking.”

Not so, says Scalia. Not so, says the orthodox Christian interpreter.

OK, that was an interesting introduction, excerpted as it was. There is a science of interpretation that adheres to rules and has rigor, which is increasingly being set aside for open-minded views which only serve to confuse the Christian. In his article, Mr Parton outlined the legal approach with the Christian approach, quoting Justice Scalia in three main points,

1. The actual words control every interpretation of a text and no interpretation should suffer to contradict the natural and plain sense of the text.

In this case, I’ll offer you the example of a plain and simple verse that should be easily interpreted: “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). Yet people dispute the interpretation of wages, redefine sin, and claim death is annihilation, not eternal conscious torment. They also redefine and dispute eternal (as in eternal punishment), wrath, and refute plain texts such as “women may not teach men in the church” and “homosexuality is sin”(no, it’s lack of hospitality is sin…”. Yet the plain meaning is clear. Next,

2. The meaning of a text should never be created from external sources (nor, we might add, from the pressure of current events or evolving public opinion) and then imposed on a text to render a meaning contrary to the clear language.
For Justice Scalia, when a text is clear on its face, that ends the matter. To then plumb the depths of secondary sources to impose a meaning contrary to the clear text would be to engage in pure divinization. Lord Bacon summed it up nicely: Non est interpretatio, sed divinatio, quae recedit a litera (“Interpretation that departs from the letter of the text is not interpretation but divination.”)

When we say “what this verse means to me,” particularly about a clear, plain textual meaning of a verse, it is an interpretation coming from external sources: outside of the word of God. The third principle Parton outlines in his comparison of biblical interpretation and legal interpretation is

3. There is one best interpretation of a passage.

Traditional Biblical interpretation stresses the “sensus literalis unus est”–the one proper and intended sense of the text. This is determined from the words of the document itself. The law supports this approach unreservedly, and the rules of evidence in California set this forth in a number of specific principles of contract–or document–construction.

Does a pastor ascend the pulpit on a Sunday morning after a week of study, and say, “Open to John chapter 3, here is what the verse means to me. It may mean something different to you.” No. Not a good pastor anyway.

Via the Iranian Atheist agnostic movement.
“What this verse means to me” is only a step away
from how we view scripture as per this atheist flowchart.

In contrasting the “this verse means to me” approach with the biblical approach, we now turn to Acts 8:26:40. The Spirit directed Philip the evangelist to go up to the Ethiopian Eunuch, who was seated in his chariot reading scripture, Isaiah 53 as it turns out. How did Philip begin the teaching lesson? Did He say, “Oh, I see you are reading scripture. What does the verse ‘“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth’ mean to you?”

Of course not. We read in Acts 8:30-31 that Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” This indicates there is one understanding, not many understandings dependent on personal applicability, whether the reader likes it, or how it fits into their culture or era.

In humility, the Eunuch said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” indicating that interpreting a verse is not about a mutual exchange of different interpretations relative to an individual’s personal meaning, but a teacher-student relationship wherein one submits to the other’s greater knowledge and listens. (Always check for proper interpretations as a Berean afterward as per Acts 17:11). What happened next was,

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. (Acts 8:35)

Philip told him. Dogmatically, authoritatively. That’s what a teacher does, he studies, submits himself to the Spirit and seeks the interpretation. Then he tells the Good News. Do we say “I will share the Good News. It’s Good News to Me. Maybe it won’t be to you.” Heavens, no!

Parton ends his essay about interpreting the Law and the Bible,

Second, lawyers deal with facts and evidence. As importantly, they deal with verdicts, some of which literally involve life and death for the parties. The law therefore has a distinct advantage over speculative postmodern literary criticism which remains insulated in comfortable academia, often totally isolated from the a world where postmodern approaches are totally and thoroughly unworkable.[13] In the final analysis, a Court hearing a case of contractual interpretation will decide that one party–and one party only–has the correct interpretation of a document. Any judge presiding over a case of contract interpretation who concludes that “everybody is entitled to their own interpretation” and that “all interpretations are equal” would be given time off to pursue other more productive occupations…

If a Judge is duty bound to search the documentation until he can offer a delivery of the ONE interpretation, how much more so should we do this in the scriptures?!

This is not to say that we aren’t humble. Philip was humble when he submitted to the Spirit’s order to go where he didn’t know and approach the person he didn’t know and explain the scriptures to him. The Eunuch was also humble in his reply.

The difference between errant dogmatism and correct dogmatism in hermeneutical interpretation is the Holy Spirit. He will settle you, if you earnestly seek the Lord and submit to His teaching. Once a passage or doctrine is settled in your mind due to the Spirit’s illumination, then is the time to explain, exhort, and defend.

This has been a lengthy explanation of why we should not say “here’s what the verse means to me.” It means what it means, and if you don’t know, study more and be quiet until you do. You’re not displaying sincere humility when you approach scripture by saying, “well I’m not sure, but what it means to me is…” you’re actually prideful, because you’re ignorant but speaking up anyway. ‘What the verse means to me’ only confounds, confuses and doesn’t help someone arrive at the crystal clear beauty of what Jesus is saying and who He is. Matthew Henry explains Peter’s verse in 2 Peter 1:20, “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation“. Peter is talking about the origin of scripture and man’s responsibility to interpret it.

Observe, No scripture prophecy is of private interpretation (or a man’s own proper opinion, an explication of his own mind), but the revelation of the mind of God. … But though the scripture be not the effusion of man’s own private opinion or inclination, but the revelation of the mind and will of God, yet every private man ought to search it, and come to understand the sense and meaning thereof.

Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 2436). Peabody: Hendrickson.

We don’t need a life verse to see His beauty from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, from the opening “In the beginning” to the last “Amen”. Life verses only diminish the majesty of the total picture. “What this verse means to me” is making yourself the idol instead of searching for what God intended for us to know.

creator, hubble, spiritual warfare, wrath

Some good stuff: Importance of preaching Divine Wrath, Tithing is not a New Testament command, Reality of Spiritual Warfare, 25 Years of Hubble (allowing us to see God’s handiwork)

Posted on May 1, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Some good stuff:

John Martin – The Great Day of Divine Wrath

I’m big on wrath. What are we “saved” from, if we never teach, witness about, or preach the wrath? How can we understand the majesty, depth, and generosity of His love if we do not first understand the wrath? This article appeared at Ligonier and is written by one of the preachers I enjoy most, Steven Lawson:

Is It Necessary to Preach Divine Wrath?

The Genevan Reformer John Calvin said, “Preaching is the public exposition of Scripture by the man sent from God, in which God Himself is present in judgment and in grace.” Faithful pulpit ministry requires the declaration of both judgment and grace. The Word of God is a sharp, two-edged sword that softens and hardens, comforts and afflicts, saves and damns.

1 Corinthians 9 is a tremendous chapter, embedded as it is between 8 and 10, where Paul lengthily expounds about eating meat sacrificed to idols. In reading the passage, I found some parts of chapter 9 difficult to understand. My puny mind and all. I turned to another of my favorite preachers, S. Lewis Johnson, after I’d read the particular passage. He expounded on it in a tremendous way. In one part of the sermon, he took a little side trip. Oh, our beloved preachers and their rabbit trails, lol. Here is the side trip down tithing lane in his sermon “Paul’s Right to Compensation“:

Now, we know that of course in the Old Testament, the Levitical priests carried out the ministry, and they were supported by the children of Israel, the other tribes. They were supported by the tithe. The tithe was not a gift. The tithe was income tax. They had to pay a tenth to the support of the priests, and so the priests carried on the work of the Lord, and they were supported by the children of Israel because they were taxed, ten percent. Clinton hasn’t brought that up yet. But nevertheless, in the Old Testament that’s the way it was done. The Old Testament speaks of tithes and offerings. Offerings were in addition to the tithe. Tithe was income tax. It’s so amazing to me, so amazing to me that we can hear ministry to the effect that we ought to give tithes. Tithes are the big thing in most of our churches, tithes. If you’ll just simply take your Concordance out and look at the New Testament and look up the term “tithe,” and you’ll see that it is never used of anything other than something that happened as history, as history, not now.

I remember my father, when the church in Charleston was putting up a new addition, First Presbyterian Church there, the Old Scots Church. And it was later on, I had been a minister of the gospel for a good time, and we had a number of talks. He was an elder in the church, and he handed me the literature. And he said, “Well, what do you think about this? Do you think — what do you think he was implying what I thought he should give? Well, I wasn’t going to give him any advice at all, but I read the material. And it was an appeal to the members of the First Presbyterian Church of Charleston to give for the new addition. Tithes was mentioned I don’t know how many times. I may still have that in my — in my notes somewhere. I thought it was a good illustration. I could use it in preaching.

But tithes, tithes were mentioned, and I had an opportunity to mention to my father that, as far as the tithe is concerned, the tithe is an Old Testament income tax. And I do know that he happened to give an offering. He told me later, he had given an offering. But we just, I feel, after all these years as old as I am, the biggest mistake made in a local church is failure to read the Bible, failure to read the Bible. The elders, deacons, and members, failure to read the Bible. Expect others to do it for us. Let Dr. Johnson tell us what the Bible has to say. No. If it depended on me, somewhere you’d go wrong because I’d go wrong somewhere. But read the Bible.

So, no, tithing was a national tax in the OT, rendered to support the temple upkeep and support the priests. It is not a NT mandate. Don’t let anyone pressure you otherwise.

Another little gem from SL Johnson’s sermon,

Lord Bacon, who was not a religious man to my knowledge, authored an aphorism regarding the interpretation of legal documents that bears directly on the interpretation of the Biblical records as well. He said, “Interpretation that departs from the letter of the text is not interpretation but divination.” That’s precisely what it is. It’s you adding things to the text as if you are an authority like the Lord God in heaven, the divine being.

EPrata photo

I really enjoyed this article from Answers in Genesis about the reality of spiritual warfare. If one peeve of mine is that the wrath is hardly preached, the reality of the spiritual war is even less so.

The Reality of Spiritual Warfare in the Home
by Dr. Robert H. Carpenter on December 13, 2007

One of the sad realities within the local church today centers on the fact that numerous born-again Christians have little or no knowledge of the spiritual warfare that takes place all around us. The Bible is crystal clear in proclaiming that there is a battle raging in the heavenlies as the forces of evil continue to wage war against not only the Creator, but also against all who trust in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Look at what our Creator has done! Just look at it!

Visit Hubble’s 25th anniversary website to see the curated collection of Hubble’s anniversary images. In contrast, this Flickr set contains one image from each year that Hubble has been in orbit.

Explore beautiful Hubble Space Telescope images from each year the telescope has been in orbit

“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all”. (1 Chronicles 29:11)