elizabethprata

Is the fact that 2014’s been dubbed ‘Year of the Christian movie" a good thing? Well, was Ahaz redecorating the temple a good thing?

Posted on March 16, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The year 2014 has been dubbed “The Year of the Christian Movie.” Ten years ago Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of Christ” was released and it became a blockbuster by any standard but especially for a Christian movie. Then…nothing. Crickets. No mainstream Hollywood movies with a Christian theme have been released. Until now.

All of a sudden, in 2013 New Ager Mystic Roma Downey and her equally lost husband Mark Burnett released a television mini-series called “The Bible”. They relentlessly hyped it in print, promoted it on tv and flogged it to preachers. Many mega-church bought into their hype, like Joel Osteen and Rick Warren (who were on the series’ ‘doctrinal staff’) and so the mini-series was even promoted from pulpits. Only thing, it wasn’t a series about Jesus, at least, the one from the actual bible, the Word of God. There were so many doctrinal errors and aberrations that it could easily be seen that the series was not spiritually profitable. But it was terribly financially profitable.

Except that many Christians couldn’t or didn’t see that the series was not about the real Jesus and it had left the real bible in the dust.

Spurred by the mini-series’ success, the Downey/Burnett duo extracted scenes from and re-worked the mini-series into a feature movie for theaters. The hyping, flogging and promoting went apace, and it was released this month. Once again the movie did brisk business at the box office. This has opened the bible-based movie floodgates, so to speak, as a Hollywood movie called Noah starring Russell Crowe is out, and almost a dozen Christian or bible based movies are ready for release or are in development or talks. 2014 has been dubbed the year of the Christian movie and many undiscerning pastors, congregants and others are hailing this as a mark that ‘the world is hungry for Jesus.’

Except it’s not. But more on that in a minute. Let’s take a look at the slew of media based on the bible that will be an affront to Jesus and unholy to everything we hold dear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2014~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

February: Son of God, reviewed here, and here where there are even more links to other reviews.
March: Noah (Russell Crowe). Noah is depicted as a boat-building psychopath wanting to murder his grandkids. Ray Comfort of Living Waters said of Noah: “They have no qualms about sensationalizing the story of Noah in order to make it more profitable,” he says. “That’s their bottom line. But the movie strays so far from the biblical account that it omits its essential message – God’s judgment for man’s sin and evil.”

March: Noah and the Last Days (Ray Comfort made this movie to respond to and oppose the Crowe movie Noah)

Spring: Left Behind, reboot of the old Left Behind released in 2000 by Jerry B Jenkins, Tim LaHaye. This one stars Nicolas Cage. Reboot translated means ‘better special effects.’

March: God’s Not Dead, Willie and Korie Robertson from Duck Dynasty. The Robertsons, while well-intended, are part of a church that preaches baptism is necessary for salvation. Go here to view a response as to whether this is correct doctrine and advance to 4:00 mark. Or here to read one.

April: Heaven Is For Real, book by Todd Burpo. Go here to read Justin Peters explain why trips to heaven do not line up with the bible.

December: Exodus (Directed by Ridley Scott, who once called religion the “source of evil.” Starring Ben Kingsley and Sigourney Weaver)

Easter 2015: Mary Mother of Christ, starring The Bible and Son of God actor Diogo Morgado as Joseph and 16 year old Israeli Odeya Rush plays Mary. Ben Kingsley and Julia Ormond round out the star power. Joel Osteen is Executive Producer.

In development: Gods and Kings, (biography of Moses directed by Ang Lee.)
In talks: Pontius Pilate (potentially starring Brad Pitt)
In talks: Cain & Abel, dir by Will Smith

And in a weird and horrifying turn of events, a new video game:

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture video game PS4, “The game will take place in a village in Shropshire during the apocalypse.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So are you excited that after a ten year drought of movies depicting the God of the Universe with His Holy Word as the script that finally a slew of entertainments using the bible as source are slated for your popcorn pleasure? No? Good. Because it’s not good. It’s apostasy is what it is.

Photo CC, Liz West

Hollywood is not making movies to edify your soul, they are making movies to line their pockets. Run out of creative ideas, they saw the response from the Bible miniseries and went for a long-ignored source for the craven entertainment of the pagan populations. They ran like rats to a carcass to rip off a piece for themselves before all the ‘best characters’ were taken. They are not making movies that show a real Jesus as THE Son of God, they are re-making Jesus into a comfortable idol they can feel good about having brushed up against, if only on celluloid.

I’d mentioned above that 2014 has been dubbed the year of the Christian movie and many undiscerning pastors, congregants and others are hailing this as a mark that ‘the world is hungry for Jesus.’ The world is most assuredly NOT hungry for Jesus. The world does not want Christianity. The world hates Jesus, hates Christians and hates everything we stand for. Hates.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18)
“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.” (John 7:7)

The matter is very simple. If it comes from the world, its works are evil.

The interest of Hollywood in bible movies is one prime example right off the bat they they are showing a false Jesus and presenting aberrant doctrine. ‘The Bible’ was almost universally praised. So is Son of God. I call the following verse the curse of popularity-

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26)

Buddy Christ, from movie Dogma

The only reason they are making bible and Jesus movies, and they hold their nose while they do it, at least until they change Jesus enough for them gulp the putrid air they are used to breathing, is to make money. And again, Jesus said this would be so.

“And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” (2 Peter 2:3)

‘Son of God’ Kicks Off Flood of Religious-Themed Films in 2014
“Hollywood is looking for that new market and it’s ignored that market for a while,” says the Rev. Michael Morris, who teaches film and religion at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, Calif. It is a great marketing device and a direct appeal to a market that has somewhat been estranged from movies and are not going to go unless they get their money’s worth,” Morris says.

Biblical films’ Hollywood comeback
Whatever happens, Noah will have the same advantage for studios as the other biblical epics. Unlike movies based on superheroes, or the latest literary sensation such as Fifty Shades of Grey, the studios will not have to pay millions of dollars in copyright and licensing fees. The stories in the Bible are free to use.

Just the combination in the same sentence of the mention of 50 Shades of Grey, a porn movie, and movies about Jesus is enough to make one shudder. But to flippantly state that the bible is an even better source because there are no licensing fees, is over the top.

But what the Hollywood movie-makers are doing and saying is not any different than what evil King Ahaz did. Ahaz went up to the King of Assyria and saw in his temple at Damascus some cute furnishings. Ahaz returned home and treated God’s house like “Extreme Makeover: Temple Edition.”

“When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it and burned his burnt offering and his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. And the bronze altar that was before the Lord he removed from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar.” (2 Kings 16:10-14)

Pulpit Commentary says of this passage and the verses subsequent:

“He had a new altar made and introduced into the temple, which at first he used for his own private sacrifices (vers. 10-13); then, that his new altar might occupy the pest of honor, he removed from its place the old brazen altar of Solomon, and put it in an inferior position (ver. 14). After this, he required all sacrifices to be offered on the new altar (ver. 15). Finally, he proceeded to interfere with several other of Solomon’s arrangements, with what particular object is not very apparent (vers. 17, 18). … One sin leads on to another. Having introduced his self-invented quasi-idolatrous altar into the temple, and so inserted “the thin end of the wedge,” Ahaz was not satisfied, but proceeded to another innovation.

For example, the High Priest was not to be commanded by the king in matters of worship but was only to be commanded by God. And so little by little, a redecorating here, a move there, and pretty soon God’s divinely ordered Temple was a shambles of scurrilous offerings and idolatrous activity. It is the same with the culture today. We do not have a temple but we have the word of God which is also divinely authoritative. But a little wedge here and a camel nose there, and you have seen how quickly the flood of blasphemous movies made by blasphemous people has swept in and one innovation proceeds to another. Satan was removed from Son of God because he looked too much like Obama. Noah is dark and psychotic and the reason for the flood has been omitted. And so on. These are not good innovations.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary,
“The sin in this affair consisted in meddling with, and improving according to human taste and fancy, the altars of the temple, the patterns of which had been furnished by divine authority (Ex 25:40; 26:30; 27:1; 1Ch 28:19).“

The bible is divinely authorized, and to meddle with or improve to human taste or fancy, and in these cases from Hollywood, to line pockets, is sin.

They keep asking the question, “Why are there suddenly so many bible movies?” and the undiscerning response has been “because the world is hungry for Jesus.” We have seen that it is not so. They are hungry for a spiritual idol of their own making, and soon they will find it in the antichrist. Rearranging the Temple went badly for Ahaz. And re-arranging the word of God to suit fancies or line pockets will go badly for those who participate also.

“Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29-31)

Or an image on silver celluloid.

Never fear! “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)

No amount of celluloid adulterating can ever tarnish the wonderful God we have in Jesus. He is holy and pure and unchanged, and He is coming to rescue His children, who persevere in the faith.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s all about the blood

Posted on March 15, 2014 by elizabethprata

Before I was a Christian I thought that Christianity was ghoulish. All that blood. Plus, eating the body. Ewww. As a Christian now, I am fascinated that God, who is Spirit, incarnated so as to shed His perfectly righteous blood to make a new covenant with His people so we can be with Him. It is a stunningly fearful and amazing thing. Below are interesting facts about the physiology of the blood from Dr. J. D. Watson, who according to his bio, “entered full-time ministry in 1974 and is currently the pastor of Grace Bible Church in Meeker, Colorado.”

“There is some fascinating history here that illustrates all this. In his 1628 book, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood, English physician Dr. William Harvey (1578–1657) was the first person to describe in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the body by the heart (although others had similar ideas before him). “It is the fountain of life,” he wrote, “the first to live, and the last to die, and the primary seat of the animal soul; it lives and is nourished of itself, and by no other part of the human body.” He did, in fact, fully revive the Mosaic principle of the vitality of the blood. This principle was later adopted by the celebrated Dr. John Hunter (1728-93), professor of anatomy in London, who fully establish the reality of this through experimentation.

Later, the eminent French zoologist Milne Edwards (1800-85) made this amazing statement:

If an animal be bled until it falls into a state of syncope, and the further loss of blood is not prevented, all muscular motion quickly ceases, respiration is suspended, the heart pauses from its action, life is no longer manifested by any outward sign, and death soon becomes inevitable; but if, in this state, the blood of another animal of the same species be injected into the veins of the one to all appearance dead, we see with amazement this inanimate body return to life, gaining accessions of vitality with each new quantity of blood that is introduced, eventual beginning to breathe freely, moving with ease, and finally walking as it was wont to do, and recovering completely.

Pretty interesting about the physiology of the blood, isn’t it?!

Here are just a few of the verses which speak to the blood throughout the bible.

The blood cries out from the ground (Genesis 4:10). Even the ground is cursed until Jesus removes sin.
Rivers are turned into blood (Psalm 78:44, Revelation 16:4) They could not drink, and were ever thirsty.
The blood is the covenant. (Exodus 24:8). The LORD keeps His promises.
The life is the blood. Leviticus 17:11. See above, about the physiology of blood.
Justified by his blood. (Romans 5:). As Matthew Henry said, the justification is not simply a legal arrangement, it is life.
This cup is the new covenant in my blood. (1 Corinthians 11:25).
We have redemption through his blood. (Ephesians 1:7). He bought us with it! (also Ephesians 2:13).
The blood of his cross made peace (Colossians 1:20).
The blood cleanses. (1 John 1:7). Think of a blood transfusion, our dirty blood being circulated away as the new blood comes in.
The blood freed us! (Revelation 1:5). How often does sinful man try to free captives by bloody warfare, but Christ’s blood is an eternal freedom from captivity and oppression. In Him we’re truly free.
Ultimately, His blood sanctifies us (Hebrews 13:12).

Coming soon: the blood of the sinners. His blood was shed once for all. In the future He will shed their blood as He comes to judge and make war!

And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:20, also Revelation 19:11)

It is ALL about the blood.

charismatic, continuationism, john piper, spiritual gifts

Cessationism versus continuationism

Posted on March 14, 2014 by elizabethprata

A conference called Strange Fire, held at John MacArthur’s church last fall and attended by notable keynote Christian pastors, there has been an ongoing fire of its own. The conference was to expose the heresies of the Charismatic movement and to explain biblically why continuationism has a falsely interpreted basis.

Continuationism is the hallmark of the Charismatics and to a degree the word faith believers also. It holds that the first century apostles’ healings, direct prophecies, and other miracles are normative to every Christian’s experience. Cessationism holds that the miracle spiritual gifts were for a foundation only, alive in the first century apostles and designees only and ceased after the foundation of the church was laid the the bible was completed.

A lot of ink has been spilled in the debate prior to and subsequent from the conference. It is still raging. But there was one comment I enjoyed for its succinct biblical explanation of why these miracle gifts have ceased. It is from a blog essay posted this week by John MacArthur, who is following up on some things from the conference regarding John Piper. I encourage you to go to the essay and its follow up and read the piece in its entirety.

The comment I enjoyed is here, #44 by comment moderator Gabriel Powell. He was responding to the people who embrace continuationism by saying that to reject cessationism is to reject the Holy Spirit entirely.

Posted by Gabriel Powell | Tuesday, March 11, 2014at 3:47 PM

It seems like there is some confusion over what cessationism rejects. While there are clear differences between the two theological positions, the reality of miracles and healing is not one of them.

Cessationism affirms that God maintains the power to heal and perform miracles. What we deny is that the “gifts” to perform signs and wonders which were so prevalent and normative in the 1st century church are still prevalent and normative today.

God’s character remains the same (which is the point of “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever”), but He deals with His people in unique ways at unique times (Hebrews 1:1).

christian life, condemnation, joy, prophecy

Do you struggle with condemnation? It’s not complicated. Don’t.

Posted on March 14, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Post-salvation, do you ever feel any condemnation, or ever struggle with it? A lot of people do, especially new Christians. I don’t want to seem super-spiritual or anything, but I don’t struggle with condemnation. I’ll tell you why, and maybe it would be encouraging.

Accused of being dogmatic all my life, I always saw things in black and white, right and wrong. People said that as I grew up I’d come to know that there are gray areas.

Do you see any gray there?

I mulled that over for a long time but rejected that notion, there is no gray area. There is only right and wrong, dark and light, good and bad, etc. The “seeking” of the rest of my life was to discover a philosophical construct which fit my innate sense of either/ors.

Buddhism seemed excessively complicated. Wicca seemed excessively simple but trying to be complicated. Islam, well, Islam is just crazy. Catholicism had too many rules, and they contradicted each other.

I found my dogmatism, my either-or perspective, satisfied in Jesus.

In Him there is law/grace, broad road/narrow road, condemnation/forgiveness, in Christ/out of Christ, heaven/hell. A great gulf is fixed. Everything with Jesus is clear and simple. Not simplistic, because Christianity is the most complicated and deep philosophy/religion/way of life one can ever study, but simple in its approach. The Gospel is often rejected because ‘it can’t be that simple’.

Let’s take a look at a scene. At the end of the Tribulation, Jesus will have blinked out all the lights in the universe. There will be no moon, no sun, and no stars. Earth will be wrecked so probably no electricity. It will be dark. It will be dark for a while, because Jesus says no one knows the day or time the son of Man is coming. (Matthew 24:36).
whoever does not believe is condemned already. John 3:18

Then all of a sudden a blinding light fills the sky. JESUS is coming in wrath, and with condemnation on His lips, and His glory is undimmed, unveiled, and no other light competes with it. It terrifies the inhabitants of the earth! They fall down and hide under the rocks and in caves, crying out

“Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?” (Revelation 6:16-17)

If I think myself condemned, or have done an action that Jesus would condemn, I think of that scene. Am I there? NO. I am not one of those unbelievers hiding under a rock and begging to escape the notice of the Lion of the tribe of Judah? NO!

Well, since Christianity is either-or, and if I’m not there, where am I? HERE:

“More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:11)

So I never struggled with condemnation, because it’s either-or. If I think about my sins, former or present, sure, I’d feel condemned. It is a heavy weight to know I fail Jesus even today, with the Spirit in me. But I don’t think about it. If I do, I’d be putting myself on the place of those poor blasphemers in Rev. 6 at the coming of Christ, hiding under the rocks and terrified of His approach. I’m not there, that’s not me. So, who am I? I am forgiven, in the light, embraced by Jesus who knew me before the foundation of the world. It simply isn’t profitable to think of being condemned, and we’re told not to:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

Not that we don’t feel bad when we sin. I certainly do. But the glory of Christ is His intimate relationship with us, and my opportunity to bring my mourning over my sin to Him and ask for forgiveness. He delights in His children and wants to forgive. As for the unnecessary feeling of condemnation?

It’s not complicated.

Jesus went through excruciating pain and agony in order to satisfy God’s wrath. He took our punishment so that we would not be condemned. Therefore I will not diminish His work by adopting an attitude of condemnation.

It’s not complicated.

If we have the faith of a child, we won’t overcomplicate the message. We’re co-heirs with Christ, in us there is no condemnation. (Romans 8:1). Why purposely burden my life with a gray area of endless options for feeling condemned in my sins when Jesus stripped it all down to two? We are either outside Christ and condemned or we are in Christ and forgiven. It’s that simple.

encouragement, jesus, new jerusalem

We will be with Jesus, personally

Posted on March 12, 2014 by elizabethprata

We long for Jesus, don’t we? We want to be in heaven where things are beautiful, and perfect, and where we won’t sweat or toil. We want peaceful rest and perfect fellowship with the saints. We definitely don’t want to sin any more.

But above all, we want JESUS!

We like to picture Him on His throne, reigning with an iron rod, in perfect peace and justice. (Revelation 2:27). We mostly picture this in the Millennium Kingdom because the bible says almost nothing about life after the 1000 year kingdom concludes, our eternal state. Prophetically the order of things to come at this point is

—The Rapture. This is when the saints who believed in the Resurrected Jesus all throughout the Church Age (between Jesus’s ascension/Pentecost and the rapture) will be translated alive or resurrected from the dead into perfect bodies able to withstand gazing upon His glory. We live in New Jerusalem which for the time being is in heaven. We enjoy the Rewards ceremony for the things done in Christ (Bema Rewards) and the marriage supper of the Lamb. Down below, the tribulation is happening,
—The Tribulation AKA the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Jesus will unleash His stored-up wrath upon the sinning inhabitants of the world and also punish Israel. This time of wrath and punishment will last 7 years. It will be a time of hell on earth, the antichrist and false prophet will be allowed a very long leash, many thousands or millions of salvations occur, and just as many martyrdoms.
—The Second Coming. Jesus will return from heaven, with us and also the angels, put a stop to the carnage on earth. He will judge the nations. (Sheep and Goats judgment)
—Millennium Kingdom. Judgment concluded, those who are saved will be allowed entry into the kingdom. This will be a time of the prophesied 1000 years of Jesus reigning on earth, which will be a renewed earth, and the church age saints living in New Jerusalem which had descended to earth. Satan will be bound in the pit during this time. At the end of the 1000 years, he will be let our for one last, very short battle, and then satan is thrown forever into the lake of fire.
—The Eternal State. Earth will be melted. We continue on in eternity with Jesus forever.

Here is a question. Jesus came to live in a body and He was killed in a body and when He was resurrected, He still had that body. He is man AND God but He is in a body. That was the sacrifice.

During the Millennial Kingdom period, when Jesus reigns from His throne in Zion (Isaiah 9:7), will Jesus be in only one place? Will those who live in Egypt or Assyria be able to be with Jesus even though they live far from Mt. Moriah? Do they lose out in being able to petition Jesus or worship Jesus or be with Jesus personally?

And what about us? The Millennium Kingdom will be vast, with all Israel’s originally promised borders finally unmolested and intact, and peoples re-populating the world, and all the Church Age saints living in New Jerusalem…with so many people around worshiping and sacrificing to Jesus, will we be able to be with Jesus personally? Have one-on-one time, in His presence, worshiping Him or just gazing in adoration?

Yes, we absolutely WILL be able to be with Him and personally, too. He is with every person who believes right now, whether they are in Greenland or Australia, Chile or Germany. How? I don’t know. But He is. (Matthew 18:20, 28:20; Hebrews 13:5).

Psalm 55:22 says He sustains us, and this means each one of us. He personally knits together every babe in the womb.

We see that He is personally involved with us now, from womb to death and beyond, and when we get to heaven, He will be personally available to us as well, but even better because He will be bodily there. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says we will see face to face. He will personally wipe each tear from our eyes (Rev 21:4)

If each person who ever lived will stand before Him to be personally judged individually by their deeds, how much more glorious will it be when we share eternal joy with Him, standing with Him at the bema seat to be rewarded! (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). We will be with Him, with Him, with Him…

He is the creator of all dimensions. How could Paul be in the body on earth but also in the spirit seeing the third heaven, (2 Corinthians 12:2) which is so beautiful no man can say the things that went on there? How can John be both on Patmos but also among the lampstands speaking with Jesus? (Revelation 1:12-13). How can Peter be on the mountain but suddenly out of another dimension he sees Moses and Elijah with them on the mountain, too? (Matthew 17:3). Which reality is real, the one where Elisha’s servant sees only the army coming to conquer them, or the one that Elisha asks God to show, the chariots of fire which were there all along? (2 Kings 6:17). God makes it happen, in heaven there are no space constrictions, and no time worries!

Have no fear, in heaven there is no disappointment, only joy. Therefore since Jesus is our joy, we will be with Him. (Matthew 25:21). He will not forsake us, ever. If he is with us now, He will be with us then, and face to face.

bible, birds, physics, science, string theory

From musical birds on a wire to natural numbers controversy; string theory to theory of everything- some thoughts

Posted on March 11, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A month ago I wrote about the Music of the Spheres, the ancient concept developed by Pythagoras and promoted by Plato that there is a hidden order and musical harmony behind what we see manifested in the physical universe. Pythagoras believed that numbers were the foundational glue that ordered the worlds, and further, that as the planets and universe went about their business orbiting and just being, that they emitted an actual musical score, thrumming as strings.

If this sounds a lot like string theory, Pythagoras had the initial glimmers. If you’d like to read more, I discussed the concept of the Music of the Spheres into three parts. Part 1 begins here.

Imagine my delight when I came across this from South America. It is from 2009, so it’s not new, but isn’t this just charming:

LifeBuzz describes:

Birdsong, by Jarbas Agnelli
One morning while reading a newspaper, composer Jarbas Agnelli saw a photograph of birds on an electric wire. He cut out the photo and was inspired to make a song using the exact location of the birds as musical notes. He was curious to hear what melody the birds created.

He sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the newspaper. It ended up Winner of the YouTube Play Guggenheim Biennial Festival.

A physics controversy is erupting. It seems that a youtube video is making a splash. According to this article it has been seen by 1.5 million people as of February 4, 2014.

Two physicists explain: The sum of all positive integers equals −1/12

Whaaaa?

I read several Physics chat rooms and forums and it seems there is a huge debate over this. Two string theory scientists had recently posted in their Youtube video explaining that all the positive integers added up to infinity equals a negative number. Who knew there were that many string theory scientists & geeks. Anyway, there is huge debate over their results. The link above is a good article explaining what the string theory scientists are about.

The article opens this way-
“How far should scientists go in simplifying complexity to engage the public imagination?”

Though the scientists say they focus on the infinite, what they’re really focusing on is the eternal.

God is the infinite. Only God can simplify the eternal so that man’s finite brain can understand it. This is why unsaved people cannot understand the bible, and this is why unsaved scientists cannot understand the complex. In fact, the only people who can understand string theory are Christians.

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16)

One of the scientists saying this positive number equals a negative number thing is Tony Padilla. Padilla says,

“It’s by no means obvious, but this is the only sensible value one can attach to this divergent sum. Infinity is not a sensible value. In my opinion, as a physicist, infinity has no place in physical observables, and therefore no place in Nature.”

No, infinity does not have a sensible value. How can one put a value on the infinite (eternal)? However, if you think about it, numbers in general do not have a sensible value! It is finite man who developed counting systems with values. Though in the US we use base-10, others use base 12. This mathematician wrote,

“Humans, for the most part, count in chunks of 10 — that’s the foundation of the decimal system. Despite its near-universal adoption, however, it’s a completely arbitrary numbering system that emerged for one very simple reason: We have five fingers on each hand.“

Mayans used base 20 and Babylonians used base 60. So scientists who put all their trust (faith?) in a value of

Babylonian numerals

a number forget that assigning a value to a number, (written in what is only a man-made squiggle after all, remember XVII?), is just as arbitrary and at root, have no sensible value, either.

David Hilbert, one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics, described infinity as “a mathematical abstraction that does not have a physical content.”

That’s because infinity is God (eternal) and God is spirit! God does not have physical content.

Linnaeus: Table of the Animal Kingdom (Regnum Animale)
from the 1st edition of Systema Naturæ (1735)

OK, this math positive numbers equal negative numbers thing is a classic example of scientists attempting to classify the unclassifiable. Physics comes extremely close to who God is and one of His infinite qualities, omniscience. The scientists are trying to order and organize something that is impossible to order and organize without knowing God. They are UNspiritual people trying to learn spiritual things- 1 Corinthians 2:13- and with a finite mind, no less.

Some parts of our physical existence can be seen and understood, but even Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, had a difficult time with his hierarchical organization trees because new species kept cropping up that destroyed his finely created “kingdom-class-order-phylum-genus-species hierarchical taxonomy.

And physicists try to do the same, but with math. It works to a degree but just when they get close, like mercury squirting out from under their thumb, their theories collapse. Their pursuit is like Tantalus’, eternally reaching for the fruit and the water that was eternally outside his grasp. It is a classic case of 2 Timothy 3:7!

Hilbert was right, more right than he knew. Infinity IS a mathematical content that has no physical…it’s God. But they will never accept that. I watched the BBC series “Atom” a couple of summers ago, narrated by physicist Jim Al-Khalili. He showed how even this dimension we are living in is likely a hologram, AKA not real – and how right he is! Which is the ‘real’ dimension? This one or the one that appeared before the disciples’ eyes on the mount of Transfiguration, with Moses and Elijah ‘suddenly’ appearing and speaking to each other? The one that Elisha’s servant saw, or the one that Elisha asked God to reveal which was there all along? In physics this hologram universe is called the ‘holographic principle’. PBS Nova describes the holographic principle–

The holographic principle, simply put, is the idea that our three-dimensional reality is a projection of information stored on a distant, two-dimensional surface. Like the emblem on your credit card, the two-dimensional surface holds all the information you need to describe a three-dimensional object—in this case, our universe. Only when it is illuminated does it reveal a three-dimensional image. This raises a number of questions: If our universe is a holographic projection, then where is the two-dimensional surface containing all the information that describes it? What “illuminates” that surface? Is it more or less real than our universe?

So when math guys say that all positive integers added to infinity would result in a sum that is a negative number, why NOT? What is real about anything we know, except for what God revealed to us in His word? all that math is, and physics, is an arbitrary philosophical construct based on man’s interpretation of things outside of the only construct that makes sense- the bible.

Physicists seek the Theory of Everything. “A theory of everything (ToE) or final theory, ultimate theory or master theory refers to the hypothetical presence of a single, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all physical aspects of the universe. ToE is one of the major unsolved problems in physics.” (source)

O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” (1 Timothy 6:20)

We rejoice in the Creator without succumbing to worshiping the creation. We take delight in Who God is, without attempting to overlay scientific theories that explain Him. He is eternal, infinite, expansive, majestic, and above all, holy. The Theory of Everything that scientists constantly seek, is … the bible. Best of all, it’s not a theory. It is fact.

“Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised! The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high,” (Psalm 113:1-9)

encouragement, rapture

The Rapture of the Church

Posted on March 10, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I love visuals. Of course, putting Jesus on a visual is always fraught with biblical issues (Second Commandment). Trying to picture the worst horrors of hell or the Tribulaton is unwise. And how does one capture some of the more nuanced concepts that can really only be seen in the Word? It’s called the word for a reason. Not ‘The Picture”. Even the Apostles and Prophets who saw what they saw still struggled with ways to say it in words. “It was like a…” and Daniel simply became ill after several of the visions.

There are three artists I can think of who seem to have done the best job In my opinion in capturing biblical concepts visually. Annie Vallotton, (and Vallotton here too) Chris Koelle, and Action Jones (AKA Chris Powers).

“…He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Action Jones

Annie Vallotton via ArtBible.net

Go to the link for Chris Koelle to see his work. It’s copyrighted. A couple of years ago he completed illustrations for the Graphic book of Revelation. he also illustrates some of John Piper’s poems, and has recently finished a series of illustrations showing the History of Redemption from Genesis to revelation. his work is available for purchase or for church events at a discounted price. His Revelation illustrations are actually chillingly, spiritually otherworldly for me to look at and so I don’t look too often.

Trying to envision the rapture is one of the hardest concepts to get right. After all, the bible says it will happen in the blink of an eye. (1 Corinthians 15:52). How do you capture that? I see lots of art that depicts Christians with arms outstretched and jet marks under their feet as they’re launched off the ground…kind of literal and corny if you ask me.

I did like this one from a short youtube video showing us a points of glory light zooming off earth into the universe:

40-second video here

Then I came across this one today. It is a free wallpaper. Someone had added the words at the bottom. I liked it because it showed the suddenness of the rapture, via the lightning. The storm clouds bespeak wrath. In my interpretation, the first Horse of the Apocalypse will ride immediately after the rapture or coinciding with it, because once the church is removed, God will unleash His stored-up wrath upon the inhabitants of the earth. So the galloping horse also is going to be part of the event at or immediately after the rapture. See what you think:

The rapture of the church, explained. 14 minutes.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Let’s be encouraged!

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

christianity, integrity, missionaries, news, test all things

Christian Martyrs about to be executed, or mind-controlled North Koreans mourning their dictator?

Posted on March 9, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

North Korea is the most closed nation on earth. Extracting any reliable information from that closed dictator-led nation is near impossible. Still, reports leak out. Depending on the source, some of them are more reliable than others.

There is a recent report that the new dictator, Kim Jong Un, son of the old dictator, Kim Jong Il, held a mass public execution last November 3. November you say, and we’re just hearing about it now? That is how slowly real news leaves the closed and mysterious country of North Korea. If the reports are true at all.

The reports say that the executions were held publicly with children forced to watch. There was no clear reason why the executions were held, other than for some infractions such as owning a bible or watching a South Korean film.

There are more recent reports that the dictator has ordered the execution of 33 Christians, for the crime of having had contact with a South Korean Baptist missionary. Those reports seem more reliable. Read more here.

I am extremely saddened by these events. We are told that Christians throughout the Church Age will be persecuted or even killed for the faith. It doesn’t make knowing the fact of them happening in front of our faces any easier to take.

However, something that diminishes the honor due missionaries and martyrs who give their life on earth for the faith in a brutal, lonely death is when undiscerning Christians, well-meaning no doubt, fall for easily discovered ruses. Like this:

Accompanying the recent story about the November executions, often appears this photo of alleged about-to-be killed North Korean Christians-

These are not Christians. These are not believers about to be killed. These are young North Koreans mourning the death of their beloved Kim Jong Il, AKA “Dear Leader”, “Superior Person” and “Father of the People.” The are victims, brainwashed and mind-controlled atheists in a locked country, suddenly bereft of their ‘god.’

How do I know this? A 5 second google search yielded this photo published in Russia Today in December 2011, not March 2014. The headline to the article in which this photo originally appeared states,

Kim Jong-il dead: Grief & mass hysteria in North Korea (VIDEO)

And the caption states, “Pyongyang residents react as they mourn over the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang (Kyodo / Reuters)”

Please, if we are to test all things regarding what we are taught by bible teachers and preachers, then let’s extend that to testing Christian news before we pass along information about missionaries and martyrs. Far too often on Facebook, twitter, or other social media and blogs, I find mindlessly repeated hoaxes, false information, and just plain obvious ruses that diminish the credibility of Christians. Let’s stay as pure as we can, on behalf of the One of whom we speak. Check it out before you pass it along. In other words, Google is your friend.

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Now as to some real news about a N. Korean missionary, this is from Voice of the Martyrs-

North Korea: Missionary Released

UPDATE #2
After being detained for two weeks for attempting to distribute gospel tracts in North Korea, John Short, 75, was released by North Korean authorities on March 2. The Australian missionary, who resides in Hong Kong with his wife, had traveled to Pyongyang as part of a regular tour group on Feb. 15. The following day, he was questioned about the gospel tracts and subsequently detained. Upon his release, he was flown to Beijing, where he was met by officials from the Australian embassy. He is expected to return to his home in Hong Kong.

UPDATE #1
Praise God that North Korean officials deported John Short to Beijing on March 2, 2014.

ORIGINAL STORY
Australian missionary John Short, 75, was questioned and detained by North Korean authorities on Feb. 16., reportedly after police learned of gospel tracts in his possession.

Short, who has lived in Hong Kong with his wife for the past 50 years, traveled to Pyongyang on Feb. 15 with a tour group, and police questioned him at his hotel the next day about the Korean-language gospel tracts that he was carrying. Officials reportedly asked him who translated the material into Korean, who sent him and to what organization he belongs.

Short’s wife was informed of his detention by a member of the tour group who was allowed to leave on Feb. 18. The tour company has made repeated calls to North Korea, but officials have refused to provide any information.

North Korea is considered the worst persecutor of Christians in the world. Although its constitution provides for freedom of religion, the practice of any non-state-sanctioned religious activity is prohibited. Possessing a Bible, praying to God or Jesus, and meeting with other Christians all are punishable by death.

The Australian government is working on Short’s behalf through its embassy in South Korea and has also requested help from Sweden, which has an embassy in Pyongyang.

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Here is one account of a martyr we will meet in heaven, killed under Diocletian’s persecution beginning in 304AD. From Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

Agrape, Chionia, and Irene, three sisters, were seized upon at Thessalonica, when Diocletian’s persecution reached Greece. They were burnt, and received the crown of martyrdom in the flames, March 25, A.D. 304. The governor, finding that he could make no impression on Irene, ordered her to be exposed naked in the streets, which shameful order having been executed, a fire was kindled near the city wall, amidst whose flames her spirit ascended beyond the reach of man’s cruelty.

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O, for the day when we are all beyond reach of man’s cruelty, under the shelter of the arms of Jesus! When all children will be translated instantly to a place of safety and love. When the aged and infirm receive their resurrected, glorified bodies and can run and leap in joy toward Jesus and kneel without pain at His feet. When persecution is no longer a word in our vocabulary and it has lost all power to instill fear or cause death. That day is coming, brothers and sisters, it is coming.

discernment, false, Lent, pride, ritual

Why do I want man to put ashes on my forehead when God will mark my forehead later? No Lent for me!

Posted on March 8, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I’m not for Lent. It has a pagan foundation and is perpetuated by the false Catholic religion. It’s associated with golden calf-Mardi Gras and Pharisaical rituals. In addition it is contrary to the Gospel. I know some say that Lent for them is just a personal time of preparation for the upcoming Resurrection Sunday AKA Easter. But personal preparation is also called for in advance of the Lord’s Table (1 Corinthians 11:28) and to some extent every time we prepare for Sunday worship. (Ezra 7:10, Romans 12:1). Actually we’re supposed to pick up our cross daily, so why set aside a special time once a year for self-examination, obedience, and repentance? Why do we make a display of preparing for just as sacred as an event so publicly? Why smear our faces with ashes and mourn when we have overcome the world, have His peace and have been given His joy?

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1)

labeled for reuse. Cardinal Dolan on Ash Wednesday speaking to reporters

“But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:17-18). [underline mine]

Further, the activity of placing a mark on our forehead looked at thorough a biblical lens… The bible shows that the false prophet places a mark on the hand or forehead of those who follow the antichrist. (Revelation 13:16). These will be doomed forever. The Whore of Babylon has a secret name written on her forehead. (Revelation 17:5). Who wants to be associated with THAT?

On the positive side, during the Tribulation, angels mark the foreheads of those who serve Jesus (Revelation 7:3, Revelation 14:1). Finally, gloriously, “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” (Revelation 22:4). The name of Christ will be upon our foreheads, placed there by angels at the behest of God, or by God Himself, so why do I want man to put any mark on my forehead? Can somebody explain that to me? Anyone? Anyone?? No thanks. I’ll wait for God to do it.

Wikipedia CC

I know the pride of my heart. I know that participating in public displays of external worship activities will only go to my head and I’ll end up promoting my own sanctity done on my own steam. No thanks, I don’t need any help in substituting works for grace. Maybe others can withstand the temptation. I know I can’t and I don’t even want to tread one inch over there. Here are some people who feel the same but have expressed it much more eloquently. The first one is by a woman named Amanda-

Counting it all Joy: A Vent About Lent
“And here’s where I may be upsetting to the more theologically-minded, but it really isn’t first and foremost about a principle for me. Or a confession. It’s about me thinking this is contrary to the GOSPEL.“

John MacArthur on Lent’s beginnings and how it is nowadays an abuse for sinning as much as possible-
Another vent about Lent:
“Some even more religious souls feel that you sort of have to work your way up to resurrection Sunday, and so they celebrate what has become known as Lent. Forty days of eating no meat and, supposedly, expressing penitence for sin. I suppose its, in most cases, hypocritical, since penitence for sin is not accomplished by some self-directed abstinence or some self-motivated plea toward God, and its hypocrisy is also seen, I think, in the fact that before Lent, people tend to really pile up the sinning since they have to do without for a while…

In fact, there are two words that come to mind when you think of the pre-Lenten season. One is the term Mardi Gras, and the other is carnival. In our country, we’re familiar with Mardi Gras. In other parts of the world, they celebrate carnival. It is a time of unbridled sinning, of drunkenness, rioting, sexual misbehavior, getting ready for penitence…in view of Easter. In fact, Mardi Gras comes from two French words. If you know French, you know that the French word Mardi means Tuesday, and gras means fat. Fat Tuesday is the last day before Lent, and you better get fat now, because you’re gonna go without for a while. Carnival comes from words that we’re familiar with. Carne, we know from chili con carne, means meat. Val, we know from high school days when somebody was the valedictorian and gave a farewell speech, means farewell. Carnival means farewell to meat. So you have a big party before you get spiritual just to make sure you don’t miss anything; and then you hope against hope that it’ll all turn out in the end if you’re penitent enough and abstain from enough, maybe someday God will raise you up.

By the way, as a footnote, Lent is not from the Bible. There is no such thing in the Bible. It comes from the mystery religions of the cults of Babylon and was connected with the supposed killing of Baal by a wild boar; and for forty days and forty nights, the priestesses and the followers of Baal mourned his death until, supposedly, he rose from the dead on the 40th day, and that is where Lent came from, and it has been superimposed on Christianity…“

Annnnd, this too, from Jeremy Walker,

This Lent I am giving up….reticence
Whether or not it is a vestige of the Emerging/Emergent appetite for a range of ‘spiritualities’ or an enthusiasm for an over-ripe liturgical renewal, I cannot say, but I wonder if it is in part a matter of distance both of time and space. This alleged ‘recovery’ of Lent and Easter is not actually a matter of historical sensitivity and an inheritance regained but of historical unawareness and an inheritance lost. Whether or not it is the high-grade muppetry of entire churches being urged to tattoo one of the stations of the cross on some part of their anatomy, or some gore-drenched re-enactment of the unrepeatable sacrifice, or some spotlit image-fest in which a total insensitivity to physical representations of the Christ – the image of the invisible God – is displayed, or some be-robed priest-figure half a step away from incense and obeisance, it does not come from Scripture and it does not belong in Christ’s church.

So that is my thought on Lent. Why is it making a comeback into Protestant churches? Here are two essays discussing Lent.

What is the meaning of Lent?

What is Lent?

discernment, holy living, kings, opposing false doctrine

Failure to actively oppose false doctrine/false teachers is a sin

Posted on March 8, 2014 by elizabethprata

In reading 1 and 2 Kings, patterns emerge. In a recent blog essay I’d mentioned that reading the books of the Kings is like watching the tide go in and out. The king was good, the borders enlarged. The king was bad, the borders came in. In and out. Repeat.

Another pattern is seen in the LORD’s declaration of where on the spectrum the king’s goodness or badness was. Sometimes the King was declared by God as outright evil. Very bad. Sometimes not so bad. Sometimes good. Here is an example. In 2 Kings 3:2a this is what is declared of Jehoram the son of Ahab who became king over Israel in Samaria:

“He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and mother,”

Why wasn’t he as bad as Ahab and Jezebel? After all, “he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made.” (2 Kings 3:2b). But Jehoram also clung to the sin of Jereboam which had made Israel sin, and this angered the LORD.

The lesson is twofold. Leaders set the example and when they are below reproach, the followers follow suit, also falling below reproach. In addition, you can’t repudiate some sins, you must repudiate ALL sins. There is no picking and choosing.

Now, how about Jehu?

“Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel. But Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin—that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan. And the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.” (2 Kings 10:28-31)

Did you catch that? “All His heart”. King David was a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22). This is a high honor bestowed on a man. Why was David given such an honor in the bible? He loved and feared the Lord. He had absolute faith in God. You might wonder, David was a great sinner, how could he be deemed a man after God’s own heart? He sinned, but he repented, fully. His heart was always pointed toward God.

David loved God’s law. (Psalm 119:47-48) He delighted in it! Yet you note that despite Jehu doing what was in the LORD’S heart, he “was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD.”

David was grateful for God. God was not a means to a kingly end for David, God was the end. (Psalm 26:6-7; Psalm 100:4).

In another case of the LORD deeming a king pretty good, we see Amaziah. “And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not like David his father.” (2 Kings 14:3). Amaziah did not remove the high places and the people still sacrificed to other gods there. (2 Kings 14:4). However he did follow through on a point of God’s law whereupon ‘he struck down his servants who had struck down the king his father’ but correctly did not kill the children of those, as the Law states. (2 Kings 14:5-6).

As you read through the Kings the recurring theme is worship of other gods on the high places. The First Commandment is to have no other gods before Him. That the King worshiped God wasn’t good enough, he must set the example by destroying the altars of other gods. Leaving them in place is an implicit agreement with them.

This theme is seen in most of the NT books whereupon the Apostles or authors of almost every book decries false teaching. Following false teaching is following another god. Failure to repudiate false teaching is also a sin. See Revelation 2:20,

“But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.“

The church at Thyatira knew this woman, a Jezebel-type, was teaching falsely, and they tolerated it. They themselves weren’t following her, which was good, but they did not strike her down from her high place, as it were. The Lord commended them for not following actively (Rev 2:24) but was still against them that they didn’t dig out the cancer of her false teaching and protect the daughters of hell she was making. (Revelation 2:23).

Discernment is active on all fronts. It means relying on the Spirit to open our eyes to false teaching, and actively asking Him to do this. It means practicing discernment by reading the word and testing what teachers teach against it (Acts 17:11). It also means when you see brethren falling under the beguiling sway of false teachers, to do something about it. Don’t tolerate it. If you do, thee Lord has that against you. Do what it right in the sight of the Lord!

“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” James 4:17)