elizabethprata

God’s Providence in the face of mega-disasters

Posted on November 14, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan decimating much of the Philippines last week, the AP has put together a list of the deadliest disasters of the last decade in which the death toll was higher than Haiyan’s.

I thought it would be interesting to look at the data regarding natural disasters in different aspects. Which are the ten worst natural disasters? Is there a particular nation that has endured the burden of more disasters than neighboring nations? In light of the fact that Jesus and the Apostles said that the times would be getting worse and worse, and the disasters that would come will be like birth pangs (which grow worse in frequency and intensity), let’s take a look.

On a personal note, each time a terrible disaster occurs and people and animals die, or horrible property destruction occurs, it is very hard to watch on the news. Knowing the destiny of those who are saved is a blessing, but alternately, knowing the destiny of those who are not saved, who die in these disasters on a mass scale, is a burden to any Christian’s soul. However, it is as Jesus says. No matter what the data shows, the times will wax worse and worse, and His hand will lift in restraint and then judgment will come.

The exercise to review the disaster data is not just a mental exercise. Each person who dies in a terrible disaster is an immortal soul. (Genesis 2:7; Matthew 10:28). As you consider the last days disasters, please allow the Spirit to increase the urgency in you to witness, live for Christ, and pray.

Comparison of natural disasters of the last decade
Typhoon Haiyan is feared to have killed more than 10,000 people in the Philippines. Here are the natural disasters in the last decade that had higher death tolls:

— March 11, 2011: A magnitude-9.0 earthquake off northeastern Japan causes a tsunami that sweeps onto the coast. About 19,000 people are killed and three nuclear reactors melt at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant.

— Jan. 12, 2010: A 7.0 earthquake devastates Haiti’s capital and surrounding cities, killing 314,000 people.

— May 12, 2008: A 7.9 temblor in China’s Sichuan province kills 87,000 people. A disproportionate number of them were children killed when their shoddily built schools collapsed.

— May 2, 2008: The storm surge from Cyclone Nargis washes up densely populated areas around the Irrawaddy River delta in Myanmar, washing away whole farming villages. Around 138,000 people died.

— Oct. 8, 2005: A 7.6 earthquake kills about 80,000 people in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir.

— Dec. 26, 2004: A 9.1 earthquake off western Indonesia triggers a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

— Dec. 26, 2003: A 6.6 earthquake flattens the historic city of Bam in southeastern Iran, and some 26,000 people are killed.

Victims of the flooding in August 1931, Wikipedia

Wikipedia has lists of the worst natural disasters. In the first set, they list the worst ever disasters over all recorded time. I had not known that in 1931, 1 million to 4 million people died in China during floods. As a matter of fact, five of the ten listed worst disasters ever occurred in China. More here.

Of the ten worst disasters since 1900, again, half of those occurred in China, with only two overlapping from the above list. The top one is that aforementioned flood that killed -4 million people. The second worst disaster since 1900 was an earthquake, again in China, that killed 650,000–779,000 people. It was in 1976 in Tangshan.

Did you know that 4,000 people died in 1972 in Iran from the world’s deadliest blizzard? I didn’t either. Of the ten worst blizzards, 50% have occurred in the United States.

Galveston 1900 hurricane aftermath, Wikipedia

Of the worst tropical cyclone, which Typhoon Haiyan doesn’t even come close, half a million people died in 1970 in Bhola, India. As a matter of fact, 60% of the worst cyclones with high death tolls have occurred in India. A majority of these disasters occurred prior to 1900, which it stands to reason because the more primitive weather prediction services and technology didn’t afford much time to evacuate.

The 1900 Galveston Hurricane in Texas USA caused the deaths of about 8,000 and birthed the modern Weather Service. The book Isaac’s Storm was a tremendous non-fiction book covering both the storm and the men who valiantly tracked the storm and the aftermath of the impact on the then-nascent weather service. Many people say it was that storm which lurched the Weather Service into modern times.

Avalanches are a danger and a hazard, too. The 1970 Huascarán avalanche; triggered by the 1970 Ancash earthquake, killed 20,000 people. In 1950-51 The Swiss were held hostage to terror, a winter they still call the “Winter of Terror“.

“The Winter of Terror was the three-month period during the winter of 1950-1951 when a previously unrecorded number of avalanches took place in the Alps. The series of 649 avalanches killed over 265 people and caused large amounts of damage to residential and other human-made structures.”

That is an average of 216 avalanches per month, or an average of 7 per day. Can you imagine living with that much terror and uncertainty? A terror where a mountain full of snow may come sweeping down into your house as you sleep, burying you alive?

Nothing gets people looking for the meaning of life like an earthquake. The hits on my blog rise dramatically when a large earthquake occurs. Maybe it is that primal terror of even the seemingly solid ground under your feet swaying and opening its chasm like hell enlarging its mouth that strikes such fear. (Isaiah 5:14). People go looking for answers in large numbers when an earthquake hits.

source

In any case, here China is the beleaguered recipient of a major disaster, three-times over. Holding the place for location of the top three worst earthquakes ever is China once again. 830,000 people died in the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake in 1556, 650,000–779,000 died in the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, and 273,400 died in 1920 in the Haiyuan earthquake.

You can go on and look at the Wikipedia page for lists and explanations of the other worst disasters, like floods/landslides (China holds the top 4 places); deadliest heat waves (the top two occurred after 2000); lightning strikes, storms and the like.

I enjoy learning about the Providence of God. I am fascinated with that doctrine. It relates to His sovereignty and how God orders, ordains, or allows everything that occurs to occur, for His plan and His glory. It is a hard concept, especially when you think of all the terrible storms and disasters that occur. It is also hard when you think about evil. Why is there evil? Why do these things happen? Phil Johnson speaks of Providence a lot. He preached about it recently at the Strange Fire conference, but prior to that, he preached on the doctrine of God’s providence the week before the conference as he was preparing. The conference sermon was terrific, I recommend it. I also recommend the sermon he preached to his Sunday School group the week prior. In that sermon, Pastor Johnson specifically addresses questions like the ones I’ve raised today, about evil, and how evil fits into God’s plan, and about all the things that happen, from mega-disasters to the hairs on your head (and when God allows each one to fall out.) God is in the little things as much as He is in the disasters.

His sermon at the conference is called Providence IS Remarkable. There is a transcript available in case you can’t listen or watch video. The sermon that relates more closely with the issues in this essay today is “The Master of My Fate.” Again, there is a transcript.

God is in control. When you see a disaster occur, remember God and obey Him. Also when you don’t see a disaster happen, remember God and obey Him. When a hair falls out of your head, or when your car starts in the morning, or when you eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, remember God and obey Him. Most importantly, remember the lost people who do not have the privilege and comfort of knowing that a loving God hods them in the palm of His hand.

Everyday Providence should make us urgent to witness, but sometimes we grow lax. I know I do. When we see a disaster like Tropical Typhoon Haiyan, it jogs us again. When they occur, floods of souls arrive in hell. Keep that visual in your mind. The ones who arrive in hell during a disaster outnumber greatly the ones who arrive in heaven. Hell must enlarge its mouth to receive them. Therefore, disasters are as much God speaking to Christians as it is to the lost.

discernment, jesus, last days, prophecy, second coming

The season of the return of Jesus Christ is near

Posted on November 14, 2013 by elizabethprata

Did you know that the Second Coming of Christ is one of the major themes of the bible?

There are 300 hundred prophecies about the First Coming of Jesus in the Old Testament, but there are 500 — five hundred! — in the Old Testament about His Second Coming! And in the New Testament, one out of every 25 verses has to do with the Second Coming of Jesus. In other words, there are many, many, many more prophecies about the Second Coming of Jesus than His First Coming. Probably twice as many. Why so many? Because Jesus is returning in wrath. The first time He came, He came as a compassionate Savior with tears in His eyes. But when He returns, He is returning as a conquering warrior with eyes like white hot flames because He is returning to judge and make war against the enemies of God. And so, since God does not wish that any should perish, He has given us sign after sign after sign to watch for. (source)

There are many of us who study the bible, including prophecy, and are eager for His return. We believe we are in the season of His return. The reason is not because there is one specific reason or sign, but because the signs are all converging with rapidity and laser focus. It’s happening fast and it is happening intensely.

One of the signs is that there will be apostasy in untold amounts before the Son of Man returns. Some of the verses which speak of this are:

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) NASB
“And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.”(Matthew 24:10, 12)
“Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16)
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,” (1 Timothy 4:1)
“the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Can there be any doubt that this time right now has had the greatest falling away from even professed ‘Christians’? Where the foundational precepts that make the faith are ignored or denied? Here is one such example:

Methodist Pastor Frank Schaefer Faces Trial for Son’s Gay Wedding “Schaefer, pastor of Zion United Methodist Church of Iona in South Lebanon Township, told his superiors in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference that he was going to perform at his son’s wedding in 2007 and received no warning or reprimand. It was only this April, when a parishioner filed a complaint, that Schaefer was told he would face discipline for violating church doctrine.”

How sad, that no one said anything for 5 years. Where is the discernment?

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” (Philippians 1:9-10).

What is my crime? I blessed two people that loved each other,” Schaefer, 51, told ABC News.

Love doesn’t trump God. It’s not a reason nor an excuse. Love is not an indicator of anything, except that the heart is desperately sick and not to be trusted. (Jeremiah 17:9, Genesis 6:5). His crime is that he disobeyed God, and failed his office of pastor.

“Jesus our Lord and Savior never mentioned homosexuality at all and my point is if it is that important of an issue, why didn’t he mention it?,” Schaefer said.

So we only need to follow the red words in the bible? The rest is chopped liver? Never let it be so! The Old Testament and the New Testament are replete with lists of sins that are abominations to God, homosexuality among them. (Genesis 19:1-13; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9, and Romans 1:26-27 shows that homosexuality itself is the judgment for those who had continually disobeyed God.) The minister forgot this verse, which says,

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

Apostasy is so rampant now that it boggles the mind that there are any decent churches left at all. And look, the article nears its conclusion with this statement:

“On Saturday in Philadelphia, nearly 50 ministers participated in a same-sex wedding at a Methodist church as a symbol of support for their colleague, Schaefer, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.”

Apostasy now, but come soon, Lord Jesus.

merchandise, prophecy

Christemporos- merchandising Christ

Posted on November 12, 2013 by elizabethprata

I often refer to the prophecy Peter issued regarding the future of the church, and the false teachers who will come. Peter said of these false teachers,

“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” (2 Peter 2:3).

Making merchandise of “you” means “us.”

I often use the KJV for this verse instead of the usual ESV because it is descriptive in a vivid way. The merchandising of Christianity is a heinous sin that is growing terribly in these last days. The word for exploit in the Greek is emporeuomai, meaning, “I travel as a merchant, engage in trade, I traffic in, make gain or business of.” It is where we get our English word emporium, which means mall or marketplace.

I mentioned this prophecy again, in a recent essay about Joel Osteen’s “Your Best Life Now: The Board Game.” False teachers and false preachers will try to merchandise Christianity by trading on Christ’s name for personal gain, and they will try to make merchandise out of the very sheep.

I was listening to a great sermon this week called “Beware of False Prophets.” In that sermon I learned about the Didache and about the term Christemporos. Here is a quote from that sermon:

In the year 100, the year of our Lord a 100 A.D. we have the earliest of the Christian writings that we know about and it’s called the Didachē. And by the year 100 the church had been formed and it was beginning to try to help itself to, to stay away from false prophets, and so in the Didachē there’s a section where the church instructed itself as to how to deal with false prophets. It uses a term to describe them and the term I think is interesting it’s Christemporos, and that Greek word means Christ merchants, Christ merchants. They used Christ, they trade in Christ, they sell Christ for personal gain, they pad their pockets, they build their empires. They are the, they are the happy Holy Spirit healers and they are the positive thinkers and they are the people who just wind up on the gravy train end of it, sucking it all up, the Christ merchants. And I’m telling you there are so many people in the world today and even in our own country who are using Jesus Christ as a product to pad their pockets, it’s unbelievable, unbelievable. And every area from books to music to preaching in churches and television and radio it’s on and on ad infinitum ad nauseam.

Christ peddler. Of course, you recognize the ’emporos’ part of the term, like emporium, it means “a merchant using a particular venue to trade.” Of course that venue is Christ. How blasphemous, horrible, and sickening.

The first recorded Christ-monger, or one who trades on the name of Christ for personal gain or other vain reasons is found in Acts 8: Simon the Magician. He tried to buy the Holy Spirit.

Using Jesus Christ to pad their pockets…can there be a worse blasphemy? To market and trade on the name of Jesus for money? To extract money from people, especially the poor and the vulnerable and the sick, so you can own a gold commode? Justin Peters is a pastor specializing in discernment teachings, and at the Strange Fire conference in October Pastor Peters played a clip of one recent prosperity preacher preying specifically on widows. The preacher said something like this ‘You’re poor, you’re widowed, not knowing where your next dollar is coming from. So send in your seed money and watch it grow…”

Pastor Peters gently reminded us all of how Jesus feels about preying on the vulnerable.

“You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.” (Exodus 22:22-24)

“Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.” (Psalm 68:5)

In general, Pastor Peters teaches constantly that there are attempts to redefine biblical Christianity by teaching dangerous doctrines designed to distort the Gospel and to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor, the desperate, the sick, and the widows. Since Simon the Magician existed in the early days of the church, unscrupulous people have tried to gain from Christianity. This sickness and blasphemy has been with us since the beginning.

Today, we have celebrity pastors flogging their book from the pulpit, preaching gimmicks on tv, merchandising the latest fad, and making merchandise out of the sheep, even extracting a widow’s last dollar or preying on the crippled and sick for cash.

Please be aware of the merchandising of Christ and the emporium of Christianity, and keep things pure. Our treasure IS Christ, and our inheritance IS His glory, and it is the privilege of being with Him forever. What a treasure He is. Watch your money and your motivations for spending and for giving, spend and give in His name and for His glory. Greedy wolves try to trade on His name, but don’t be a part of it.

disaster, tribulation, wrath

Typhoon Haiyan: survivors walk like zombies

Posted on November 11, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

source

The Zombie Apocalypse is a well-known American trope that emerged from the literary horror genre spawned by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1818. Throughout the rest of the 1800s, various undead themed books were published, and by the 1920s and 30s, HP Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe brought the horror genre and with it, zombies, into the modern age.

Nowadays says Wiki, “The turn of the millennium coincided with a decade of box office successes in which the zombie sub-genre experienced a resurgence”.

And, with zombies, came the zombie apocalypse. The “zombie apocalypse” concept, in which the civilized world is brought low by a global zombie infestation, has become a staple of modern popular art.” (Wikipedia)

It has become so popular in fact, that the Center for Disease Control spoofed their own selves in their preparedness booklet Zombie Pandemic, touted as a fun way that “demonstrates the importance of being prepared in an entertaining way that people of all ages will enjoy. (source)

If there are those among you who don’t enjoy the zombie genre, myself included, the image of the zombie is still easily recognized. The shambling, stumbling walk, the insensate eyes, the mumbling, the thousand yard stare…all indicative of zombie behavior. As a matter of fact, zombies are much like the shell shocked WW1 vets returning home from the horrors of battle, so named because they seemed as empty and void as a shell. Shell Shock is “a reaction to the intensity of the bombardment and fighting that produced a helplessness appearing variously as panic, or flight, an inability to reason, sleep, walk or talk.”

Shell Shock: This is Private Eagerfield. (WW1)
Eagerfield’s facial expression is also typical
of von Graefe’s sign where there is an immobility of the
upper eyelid and downward rotation of the eye.(source)

Part of shell shock in the WW1 vets, and any person today who has endured a trauma ,may not only become shell shocked but their condition may also include neurasthenia, as it did for many WW1 vets. Neurasthenia is a condition was explained as being a result of exhaustion of the central nervous system’s energy reserves.

In summary, when populations endure mass trauma to the point where comprehension is impossible, in other words seeing horrors on a scope heretofore unseen or unexperienced, shell shock and nervous system failure often resulted.

Just like zombies.

With all that in mind, here is a news piece today which refers to the Filipinos who endured the “worst storm on record” walking around like zombies.

SUPER TYPHOON HAIYAN: Survivors ‘walk like Zombies’
November 10, 2013 – TACLOBAN, Philippines – One of the most powerful storms ever recorded killed at least 10,000 people in the central Philippines, a senior police official said on Sunday, with huge waves sweeping away entire coastal villages and devastating the region’s main city. Super typhoon Haiyan destroyed about 70 to 80 percent of the area in its path as it tore through Leyte province on Friday, said police chief superintendent Elmer Soria. As rescue workers struggled to reach ravaged villages along the coast, where the death toll is as yet unknown, survivors foraged for food as supplies dwindled or searched for lost loved ones. “People are walking like zombies looking for food,” said Jenny Chu, a medical student in Leyte. “It’s like a movie.” Most of the deaths appear to have been caused by surging sea water strewn with debris that many said resembled a tsunami, leveling houses and drowning hundreds of people in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the typhoon-prone Southeast Asian nation.

Foraging…stumbling around insensate…blank eyes unable to comprehend the scope of the damage…lives lost on a mass scale…It is just heartbreaking to think of so many people and children who are affected by this disaster.

Corpses hanging on trees, homes destroyed, livestock dead, families dispersed, and no food, sanitation or water. Looting, danger, cold, illness.

“Witnesses and officials described chaotic scenes in Leyte’s capital, Tacloban, a coastal city of 220,000 about 580 km (360 miles) southeast of Manila which bore the brunt, with hundreds of bodies piled on the sides of roads and pinned under wrecked houses.” (source)

Bodies litter the debris-strewn streets of the obliterated city of
Tacloban, Philippines
after Typhoon Haiyan came through in November 2013

“On a stretch of road on the way into Tacloban city centre, just past a lone white coffin with gold-painted handles, lay a mass of dead, bloated bodies. Men, women, cats, dogs and pigs were piled in a heap against a stone house with a metal roof bent upwards like a question mark. Its residents stared out at the chaos below like zombies.” (source)

Now imagine when all the world at the same time is like this.

Typhoon Haiyan hit Tacloban city, in Leyte province in central Philippines on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013. It was one of the most powerful typhoons on record, ever. Have you noticed that the storms that come are getting bigger and bigger?

source

Remember Joplin? The tornado? Weatherman Mike Bettes bursting into tears, affected and unable to articulate the scale of the disaster?

The bible says that in the Tribulation, these disasters will come one upon another, faster and faster as birth pangs upon a woman. There will be constant worldwide disasters.

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26)

This verse is saying that people will drop dead on the spot when they see the things that will be happening.

“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.” (Revelation 6:12-14)

Demons will pour out from hell, attack any and all people not saved by the grace of Jesus after the rapture took the believers during the age of Grace. Mountains will fall, oceans will be as blood, a third of the ships of the sea will sink and millions will drown.

Am I trying to scare you? Yes. Yes. I have talked with too many people that have a casual view of the wrath of God. I have spoken with too many people who have a romantic notion of surviving the Tribulation. I hear too many people set aside the day of their salvation, putting it off for trivial pursuits of drinking carousing, playing.

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed..
Imagine Tacloban city as your city. Zombie-like shell shocked people wandering insensibly, not caring about you or your safety. They attack for a can of tuna, kill over a drink of water. Or you, stepping over maggot ridden bloated dead bodies, yourself coming down with cholera, knowing that where you fall, you die.

God is soon going to pour out his wrath on the entire world, and unless you are saved by the grace of Jesus, you will be one of those left behind to face all this. Just as the poor folks of the Philippines cannot comprehend the devastation of their cities and towns, you cannot, cannot comprehend the wrath of God that is coming. You have no ability to comprehend what it will be like because Jesus said it will be unlike any time in the world’s history ever. (Matthew 24:21). There is nothing to compare it to. It will be horrible. Words fail.

“Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17).

“The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.” (Psalm 110:5)

“How awful that day will be! No other will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it.” (Jeremiah 30:7)

REPENT NOW! There is nothing casual or romantic or undemanding about this coming time of horror, wrath, and fury from the Almighty God of all creation. Don’t set aside the implications of the storms on the horizon. If you repent of your sins now, and appeal to the Judge for forgiveness He will forgive you. You will leave this earth before the time of Jacob’s trouble begins, and you will not endure the wrath. (1 Thessalonians 5:9, Revelation 3:10).

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:6-7)

If you do not repent, when we are raptured away you will be left to face an increasingly apocalyptic series of horrors which, if you survive, your mind may simply become zombie-like and your body faint as these things are coming on the earth. And if you die in one of the disasters before you repent, you will spend your eternity in hell paying for your sins in torment and punishment.

Scary? Yes. It is. The fact and certainty of God’s wrath is scary. The certainty of His grace and love in His forgiveness is peace. You choose.

———————

For further reading

What is the biblical understanding of the wrath of God? (short essay)

The Truth About Hell (longer essay)

God’s Wrath Poured Out Like Fire (sermon, listen or read)

martyr, origen

Sunday Martyr Moment: Origen

Posted on November 10, 2013 by elizabethprata

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. According to this summary from Christian Book Summaries,

Writing in the mid-1500s, John Foxe was living in the midst of intense religious persecution at the hands of the dominant Roman Catholic Church. In graphic detail, he offers accounts of Christians being martyred for their belief in Jesus Christ, describing how God gave them extraordinary courage and stamina to endure unthinkable torture.

From the same link, the book’s purpose was fourfold:

Showcase the courage of true believers who have willingly taken a stand for Jesus Christ throughout the ages, even if it meant death,
Demonstrate the grace of God in the lives of those martyred for their faith,
Expose the ruthlessness of religious and political leaders as they sought to suppress those with differing beliefs,
Celebrate the courage of those who risked their lives to translate the Bible into the common language of the people.

Text from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

The end of the Seventh Persecution, Under Decius, A.D. 249

Origen, the celebrated presbyter and catechist of Alexandria, at the age of sixty-four, was seized, thrown into a loathsome prison, laden with fetters, his feet placed in the stocks, and his legs extended to the utmost for several successive days. He was threatened with fire, and tormented by every lingering means the most infernal imaginations could suggest. During this cruel temporizing, the emperor Decius died, and Gallus, who succeeded him, engaging in a war with the Goths, the Christians met with a respite. In this interim, Origen obtained his enlargement, and, retiring to Tyre, he there remained until his death, which happened when he was in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
————————-
Who Was Origen?

A brilliant bible scholar and a man extremely well-versed in Greek philosophies, Origen nonetheless held to a stance of ultimate reconciliation. Seen most recently in Rob Bell’s book “Love Wins”, this stance is actually one of the first aberrant teachings of the early church. Origen was the most notable proponent of it. GotQuestions explains:

Although the doctrine of ultimate reconciliation has been championed by a variety of individuals down through history, there are two that stand out. The first is Origen of Alexandria (185-254 A.D.). The African theologian, who took an allegorical approach to Scripture and was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, did not believe in the eternal suffering of sinners in hell. For Origen, all created beings, even demons and the devil, would eventually achieve salvation, no matter how long it took in the current life or in the life to come. He reasoned that because God’s love is so powerful, it will eventually soften even the hardest heart. This thought is echoed by Bell who says, “No one can resist God’s pursuit forever because God’s love will eventually melt even the hardest hearts” (p. 108).

Origen saw the church as the great “school of souls” in which erring pupils are instructed and disciplined, but for those who do not choose God in this life, they would continue their ‘tutelage’ in the next through an atoning and sanctifying process of purging fire. Origen believed that hell cannot be permanent for any soul because God could not abandon any creature. Since God respects human freedom, the process of winning over His created beings may take a long time in some cases, but God’s love, Origen believed, will ultimately triumph. Or as Rob Bell puts it, love wins.

Origen’s restoration of all beings, known as apokatastasis, is the Greek word used in Acts 3:21 for ‘restoration, and can be traced back to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who stated that “the beginning and end are common.” Origen’s belief in ultimate reconciliation was eventually refuted by Augustine and condemned in 543 A.D. in a council at Constantinople.

There truly is nothing new under the sun, and this ‘new’ thought that Rob Bell promotes is actually almost two thousand years old and held profound sway over the Christians at the time of Origen.

There is no second chance, no matter how much Origen or Rob Bell wish it were otherwise. The writer of Hebrews plainly states, “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

scripture

A small thought about our infinitely Faithful and True Lord

Posted on November 10, 2013 by elizabethprata

These words are true and faithful. (Revelation 21:5)

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. (Revelation 19:11)

And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. (Revelation 3:14)

Jesus is the Word, and Jesus is Faithful and True, and the word is faithful and true! How circularly wonderful!!

false teacher, merchandise, prophecy

Your Best Life Now: the Board Game

Posted on November 9, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Published in 2006 and placed into the Museum of Idolatry in 2007, we find the artifact of “Your Best Life Now: The Board Game” still being sold on Amazon today. Apparently the Prosperity Gospel’s attraction does not wane but only grows more attractive with age.

A person named David Harrison wrote a review of the game on Amazon,
This was bought as a joke gift for a friend. Joel has popularized a gospel message that promises an easy, comfortable, and prosperous lifestyle to the Christian. He ignores the fact that God’s primary purpose for us is to make the glory of God known to the world, and instead, Joel promotes an idea that loving God will result in making more money. This game gives us a great example of what is wrong with the prosperity gospel.

This person wrote a hilariously sarcastic review,
This game doesn’t have the same style as those of the Reformation and even earlier. Augustine’s “Hungry, Hungry Bishop of Hippo” set a standard to which Osteen can only dream.

What is the most tragic thing on this page? The fact that such a “game” exists? Yes that’s tragic but…the fact that there exists a five-star review? Yes, that is bad also, but…the fact that even 7 years after this game was published it is still popular enough to have “ONLY 1 LEFT IN STOCK”?!?! We have a winner.

I continue to look toward my go-to prophecy, which I believe is being fulfilled in accelerating train style each day,

“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. (2 Peter 2:3 KJV)

I always use the KJV for this verse because the language is more descriptive. The Greek word for ‘merchandise’ is emporeuomai, from which we get the word emporium, or mall. It literally means “I travel as a merchant, engage in trade; I traffic in, make gain or business of”. We can see the devastating fulfillment of this prophecy any time we go to a Christian bookstore, especially a Lifeway store.

Money tends to corrupt faith and the faithful. We are warned over this so many times. Money itself is not bad. The love of money is. (1 Timothy 6:10). Jesus was righteously wrathful over the merchandising of faith in the Temple, and cleansed it with a whip. (John 2:13-22). Ananias and Sapphira became the first Christians in the Church killed for their hypocrisy and it was over the money they’d held back and lying about it. (Acts 5:1-2). The Rich Young Man refused to believe in the Messiah who was standing in front of Him, in favor of the property he owned far off. (Matthew 19:22). Simon the Sorcerer tried to buy the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:19-20).

The mixture of money and faith usually ends up being tragic if one is not careful.

And now we see not just greed and interest in personal wealth climbing to stratospheric proportions but the faithful actually being made merchandise out of.

The next time you enter a Christian bookstore, see how long it takes you to be distracted from buying a serious theological book which will edify you (if they even have any in the store anymore) in favor of buying something tangential, like a game or a praise CD or a gizmo or a piece of jewelry or a set of greeting cards or a huge bejewled cross or a birdhouse or … anyway, the tangential things are seeded around the store like sirens. And I don’t mean the loud clanging bells, I mean the seductive sea creatures who tried to lure mythological Odysseus off his path and onto the shoals in shipwreck.

The Siren: John William Waterhouse, ~1900

“A siren call means something that is alluring. It is dangerous and potentially deadly. Even if you know better, the siren call is hard to resist. In Greek mythology, the sirens who allured were sea nymphs beguiling enough to begin with, but with even more enticing voices.” (source)

The Sirens were luscious sea nymphs who lured sailors to their death with a bewitching songs. As Walter Copland Perry observed: “Their song, though irresistibly sweet, was no less sad than sweet, and lapped both body and soul in a fatal lethargy, the forerunner of death and corruption.”

Merchandising is today’s mythological Sirens. And the wolves do it via smooth talk and flattery- their voices. (Romans 16:8; Psalm 12:2; Colossians 2:4)

The greedy wolves seek to exploit the faith and the faithful with bewitching merchandising songs which lure you from the aisles of the bookstore to the shoal infested waters of games, trinkets, and fluff-filled books that tickle your ears with doctrines of devils and distract you into a fatal lethargy.

Stay vigilant! Don’t buy the merchandise, but more importantly, don’t BE the merchandise.

encouragement, salvation forgiveness

Encouragement: the justified are not condemned

Posted on November 8, 2013 by elizabethprata

After we are born again, we still sin. However, the difference is, we feel it acutely. Before, we sinned and our hard hearts of stone didn’t feel the least bit bad. Or only a little and not for long. But post salvation, our sins weigh on us terribly, now that we know God and have been reconciled to Him.

Do you feel condemnation when you repent? I know we all feel the burden of our sins. It is so easy to slide into self-condemnation when we look at the wretchedness of our own selves compared to the majesty of His grace. But don’t allow the slide! Here’s why.

The sanctification process

When we repent and are forgiven of our sins, we become justified. Jesus as Judge removes the penalty of our crimes (sins) from us and brings the gavel down and we are declared ‘not guilty.’ That’s justification. We are declared just before the Judge.

Then He sends the Spirit to us to sanctify us. Becoming sanctified means the Holy Spirit Who dwells within us is working to mold us into a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:7; Romans 6:4). This is the ministry of reconciliation and the Spirit’s work in creating us as new creatures in His likeness. (2 Corinthians 3:18).

See, before the fall, Adam was made in the image of God, in His likeness. (Genesis 1:26). When Adam and Eve sinned, we were no longer creatures who looked like Him because sin was found in them, and now, us. When the Holy Spirit comes into us, He works to reverse that devolving sinning process as long as we are on earth. When we die and our souls go to heaven, and we eventually get our new bodies, the sanctification process will be completed at the glorification. Our new flesh will be completely free of sin.

When I pray to Jesus in my private time and I repent of the day’s sins, I could easily slide into self-condemnation if I allow it. My sins are so many and His perfection and glory is so great! O, how utterly I understand Paul’s lament, “For I do not understand my own actions. “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15).

Condemnation vs. Self-Condemnation

So why don’t I allow condemnation? Why is it important not to allow that slide? When I look at my
sin and ask for forgiveness, it is because of His glory. I believe as Thomas Watson the Puritan wrote, “Man’s Chief End is to Glorify God”. He chose us, justified us, sanctifies us and will glorify us through His Son for this purpose- to bring glory to Himself.

His condemnation rests on the unjustified. (Romans 1:18). All His condemnation is stored up to be poured out forever on those who refuse to believe.

So I have to remember, what glory does it bring Him to condemn the justified? The most glory that can be brought is His ever-working Spirit sanctifying believers into Christ-likeness. His grace expressed on the wretched believer is something that is so glorious that even angels long to look into it. As Jamiesson Fausset Brown Commentary so eloquently puts it,

As the cherubim stood bending over the mercy seat, the emblem of redemption, in the holiest place, so the angels intently gaze upon and desire to fathom the depths of “the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels” (1Ti 3:16). Their “ministry to the heirs of salvation” naturally disposes them to wish to penetrate this mystery as reflecting such glory on the love, justice, wisdom, and power of their and our God and Lord. They can know it only through its manifestation in the Church, as they personally have not the direct share in it that we have.

The more sin I bring Him and repent of, the more glory He gets.

Ultimately I have to tell myself that there is a difference between dwelling on the fact that I am condemnation-worthy, and knowing I am worthy of condemnation but I escape it through His grace.
It is the great mystery of Godliness! The former glorifies me, and the latter glorifies Him.

So bring Him your sins in a ministry of prayer and repentance, and bring Him glory by submitting to the Spirit in sanctification. Do not wallow in self-condemnation but glory in His grace.

I hope you find this encouraging. His grace is unplumbable, and the mystery of His love to us is unfathomable. Yet He promises rest.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. (Hebrews 4:1)

false teacher, simon the magician, steven furtick

Steven Furtick and Simon the Sorcerer

Posted on November 7, 2013January 31, 2021 by elizabethprata

I haven’t written a lot about Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte NC. It is an emergent church led by a pastor in skinny jeans and casual attitude, and services have a loud band, a lot of smoke and not too much bible. One of those kind of churches. And given the times in which we live, it is growing by leaps and bounds. (2 Timothy 4:3). And given the times in which we live, going to Elevation Church website and clicking on “About Steven” brings you not to another church page describing the pastor, but to a separate website named after himself. And given the times in which we live (2 Peter 2:3) the pastor of this church lives in a 16,000 square foot, $1.7Million dollar home and is under investigation for excessive lifestyle. Of course. (2 Peter 2:3). But not to worry because Elevation church is planning an $86 million dollar expansion according to a leaked internal document, and thus there will be baby Elevation Churches born soon to distract the gullible.

Forget the biblical qualifications for pastor. The above is the resume for today’s hip, happenin’ pastor.

Continue reading “Steven Furtick and Simon the Sorcerer” →

bible, truth, worship

Is the God of the hills the same God of the valleys?

Posted on November 6, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Ahab was facing a multitudinous enemy. Syria was encamped and ready to attack. The LORD told Ahab that he would give the victory to Ahab, and in such a way that all would know He is the LORD.

“And behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will give it into your hand this day, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” (1 Kings 20:13).

And so He did. It came to pass exactly as he said it would via the prophet. The Syrians were upset, and mulled over their loss. They rationalized,

“And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills, and so they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.” (1 Kings 20:23)

The “gods of the hills”.

And herein lies the point for us today. The Syrians knew that a higher power was at work. They understood there were supernatural events caused by powers which lived above and beyond. They did not understand the nature of this loss, however, and attributed it to them fighting the wrong gods. If this god is powerful on the hills, they reasoned, then let’s fight their gods of the valleys, who are probably weaker. Yeah, that’s it.

In our faith, there is only whole worship or there is no worship. There is no worshiping God but not Jesus. There is no worshiping Jesus but dismissing the Holy Spirit. There is no worship of God on Sunday and blaspheming Him the other 6 days. There is no faith being simply mental assent but failure to reach the heart. God is not a God of the mountains only. He is God over the whole earth and everything in it.

“A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,” (Psalm 24:1)

All those who dwell in the earth are the Lord’s too. Even those who do not believe, He is king over. He demands proper worship and He demands whole worship- all our heart, mind, soul and strength. (Matthew 22:38)

No, God is God of the whole earth. There are no other gods. But people today “reason” the same way the Syrians did, albeit metaphorically. The attend a church and become convicted, but say ‘I don’t like this church of the mountains so I will seek another god of the valleys.’

Or they say ‘He is God of the New Testament but I don’t like the God of the Old Testament so I’ll just take those words with a grain of salt.’ They pick and choose a God of their own making by adhering to the words in the bible that speak of mountains and not the words that speak of valleys.

Thomas Jefferson did that. He liked Jesus of Nazareth but dismissed the Holy Spirit and declined to believe in God. Here, Smithsonian Magazine explains,

Thomas Jefferson cut verses from six copies of the New Testament
to create his own personal version. (Hugh Talman / NMAH, SI)

“At age 77, Thomas Jefferson, after two terms as president, turned to a project that had occupied his mind for at least two decades—the creation of a book of moral lessons drawn from the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, Mark and John. With painstaking precision, Jefferson cut verses from editions of the New Testament in English, French, Greek and Latin. He pasted these onto loose blank pages, which were then bound to make a book.”

You can read Jefferson’s bible online here, and see his actual cuts and pastes.

Today, people like the ancient Syrians seek a different god so as to conquer him. They forego traditional church for beer church. They eschew pastors who speak of sin and judgment for pastors who speak of our best life now. Or pastrixes. They go away from the battle and lick their wounds and reason and rationalize and they come back with a renewed philosophy of life that bears little to no resemblance to the revealed God of the bible.

God is God. There is no god of the mountains but not of the valleys. Partial recognition of “a god” of the mountains will only result is pain, loss, and gnashing of teeth. Jesus will say to them, “depart from me you evildoers. I never knew you.”

Our faith is a whole faith, requiring every cell of our body to come under submission to the God of the Universe. It requires acknowledgement of, submission to, and service under the Trinitarian God revealed to us via Has creation and His Son. He is glory upon glory, and a true worshiper would want to do no less.

Here, Linda Randle sings that the God of the Mountains is still God of the Valleys, and her intent is that He is God of our lives when we are at emotional high points and emotional low points. But He is in fact God of the mountains and God of the valleys, geographically, as well as emotionally, and in fact in every way one can possibly think of. Always worship the Ancient of Days in spirit and in truth, wholly and with no partiality. (James 1:8)