THIS is why I still read Drudge after all these years. It is why 10 Billion people visited his site last year.
Screen shot of Drudge Homepage 10-21-12
Drudge: Obama’s foreign policy
Author: elizabethprata
Christian writer and Georgia reading teacher who loves Jesus, a quiet life, art, beauty, and children.
How the Christian secret feminists are reforming the definition of biblical womanhood. Part 3
By Elizabeth Prata
Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3
I’ve been looking at Christian secret feminism. I call it secret feminism because as opposed to the open Christian feminists, these women live as feminists but cloak their lifestyle and teaching in Christianese talk. Look at part 1 for how they do that, and look at part 2 for an examination of what the bible calls women to be like.
In this final part I want to look at Revelation 2 again, the church at Thyatira. This part will look at the final outcome of what happens to churches that tolerate this stuff.
In April of this year I proposed that the false prophetess Jezebel-spirit spoken against by Jesus in who was being tolerated in the church at Thyatira was a Beth Moore type. I am going to deepen that study a bit.
In the previous two parts I’ve spoken of the lifestyle that Beth Moore and other female celebrity teachers lives is more one of feminism than wifely biblical womanhood. I parsed their speech and compared that to their life and the difference is amazing in its gap. One does not match up to the other. I’ve examined many times how Moore in particular has brought false teachings into the church, particularly the American church, much to the detriment of her students. I said that one way to discern if a person is true or not is to match what they say with what they do and if there is a discrepancy over time, it is in fact a pattern of falsity. Beth Moore exemplifies this both in her lifestyle and her teaching.
Theologian Robin Schumacher wrote about the church at Thyatira. First, let’s see what Jesus has to say to this church, which was an actual church in the first century, but is also representative of the church of today.
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.”
“‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 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. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (Revelation 2:18-29)
Oh, Lord Jesus praise Your name!!
Schumacher writes of the verse referring to Jezebel, “Christ condemns what was evidently rampant immorality in the church that was spearheaded by a prominent female figure that Jesus likens to the Old Testament character of Jezebel. The specific deeds called out are spiritual adultery and the worship of idols signified by the eating of things sacrificed to them.”
He notes that the Greek term tolerate means to ‘let go’ and ‘allow.’ “The main complaint Jesus had against the church was that they were allowing a false teacher to parade her teaching and her practices in their midst, with the end result that some were being led astray. We need to remember that the church is not to be a home for false teaching.”
John MacArthur explains what happens when a church tolerates false teaching, “Sin and false doctrine always appear together. Whenever false doctrine enters into a church, sin follows. For example, the church at Corinth was subject to false teachers. As a result, sin became widespread throughout the church. The church at Thyatira represents the church characterized by sin and false doctrine. Where there is a tolerance for false doctrine, theological liberalism begins to creep in and the gospel is watered down. That is how Satan brings about sin.”
It is exactly happening like that today.
Let’s look at the verse referring to this false teacher as prophetess. Schumacher again:
“The word ‘prophetess’ is only used in the New Testament here and once in Luke 2:36 to speak of Anna- it means one who interprets oracles. The easiest way to justify false teaching is to make the claim that you are a prophet from God and that the things you advocate and teach come directly from Him.”
Wow. I want you to think for a minute if there is any woman in today’s Christian world who is
–teaching
–proclaiming false things in that teaching
–wielding major influence across the church
–leading many astray
–claiming direct revelation from God
–and was told to teach it to the people
–having been around long enough to birth spiritual daughters
Going on, the Lord said He gave her time to repent. She did not want to, the verse says, but in the meantime she birthed spiritual daughters.
The Lord is gracious and kind. He gave time to repent, and in so doing he also gave the church time to put a stop to the false teaching. However as much as the Jezebel teacher didn’t want to repent, the church didn’t put a stop to it.
When we step outside our roles God assigned us chaos ensues. Men are giving up on their biblically mandated charge to the shepherds and teachers and handing over the roles to women, who are also taking up those roles at home. Women, emboldened by their secular feminist sisters, are yielding to satan’s temptation to go after leadership roles.
Brethren, God is the authority. He knows best. If He ordained things they way they are it is for our good. We must believe that. We must. It is what faith is, believing and living out a life submitted to His precepts.
Now, I don’t think all the woman I’ve mentioned throughout his series are terrible people. Some may even be saved, and love the Lord. They may not be aware of the fact that they are part of a generation that has compromised on their biblical role, having only had spiritual Jezebels to look up to. But the word of God is the ultimate authority and His lenses are always clear.
I’ve seen submitted woman living a life of care and nurturing love to their family and it is a beautiful thing. Beautiful. I’ve seen modesty displayed and humility exhibited, and it is a gentle refreshing rain to my soul. When a married man and a woman demonstrate a life of complementary roles is it a wonder.
And above all, Jesus is glorified.
There is nothing that has more eternal impact than a Christian life of men and women in their Godly roles. Please do not believe your self worthless or marginalized. I see. I watch. Others do too. We love the sweet life of a modest woman and the husbandly care of a submitted man. To Whom does the man submit? To Jesus. (Ephesians 5:22-33.)
Jesus is our all in all, sufficient for all things, eternally. And that is a praise to Him!
Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3
How the Christian secret feminists are reforming the definition of biblical womanhood. Part 2
By Elizabeth Prata
Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3
In Part 1 of examining this issue, I brought to your attention the first generation of Christian secret feminists and looked at their lives and their words. I looked at the second generation also, and examined the things they are saying and doing that usurp the biblical role for women as outlined in the bible. They are celebrity bible teachers who, under the guise of ministry and the cloak of Christianese, are in fact living an overt feminist life. I called these women Christian secret feminists.
In this part I would like to look at what biblical womanhood is rather than look at what it isn’t. We have seen enough of that in part 1, haven’t we?!
In 2007 a half day conference was held titled “Different By Design: A crucial call to faithfulness in gender issues.” The session was to be held just prior to the Desiring God conference. Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and Ligon Duncan, Professor at the Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) were the keynotes. If the call was crucial in 2007 almost 6 years ago, it is a siren call today.
Posted on this woman’s webpage is an archive of some of the issues discussed at that conference.
Wayne Grudem, Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies, wrote a book called Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth. The synopsis of the book states, “Egalitarians, or evangelical feminists, consider men’s and women’s roles in the home and church to be interchangeable. In this helpful book, Bible scholar Wayne Grudem considers over a hundred egalitarian arguments and finds them contrary to the Bible. According to Grudem, the Bible teaches that God values men and women equally. However, their roles in home and church are complementary to each other, not interchangeable. Arguing against both feminism on the left and male chauvinism on the right, his carefully researched handbook is a valuable resource defending the complementarian viewpoint.”
Professor Grudem wrote it because he was concerned that evangelical feminism (also called “egalitarianism”) has become a new path by which evangelicals are being drawn into the theological liberalism.”
Grudem defines evangelical feminism (or as I define the worse flavors of it, Christian secret feminists), “When I speak of “evangelical feminism” I mean a movement that claims there are no unique leadership roles for men in marriage or in the church. According to evangelical feminism, there is no leadership role in marriage that belongs to the husband simply because he is the husband, but leadership is to be shared between husband and wife according to their gifts and desires. And there are no leadership roles in the church reserved for men, but women as well as men can be pastors and elders and hold any office in the church.'”
For example, Al Moher explained why the issue of biblical womanhood is so important, “The fault lines of controversy in contemporary Christianity range across a vast terrain of issues, but none seems quite so volatile as the question of gender. As Christians have been thinking and rethinking these issues in recent years, a clear pattern of divergence has appeared. At stake in this debate is something more important than the question of gender, for this controversy reaches the deepest questions of Christian identity and biblical authority.” Continuing later in his piece, Mohler said, “The postmodern worldview embraces the notion of gender as a social construct. That is, postmodernists argue that our notions of what it means to be male and female are entirely due to what society has constructed as its theories of masculinity and femininity.”
It is important to remember that roles for men and women are not socially defined, but biblically defined. Even those women inside Christianity who attempt to redefine their roles by saying it is a gift or a ministry from God are in themselves redefining the bible because doing this proves they believe the bible to be insufficient as their authoritative guide for life.
So what is Biblical Womanhood? Dr. Georgia Purdom at Answers in Genesis begins her answer to that question by saying:
“The online Free Dictionary defines womanhood as “the composite of qualities thought to be appropriate to or representative of women.” How do we determine the qualities women should possess? Scripture is the ultimate authority.”
“Most Christians think immediately of Proverbs 31. While this passage is important to biblical womanhood, it is not the foundation. We need to go back to the beginning—Genesis 1. Here we see that God created both male and female in His image (Genesis 1:27).”
“However, God created men and women with physical, emotional, and mental differences; and while both bear the image of God, they do so uniquely. God also created men and women to have different roles in marriage (Genesis 2:18) and the church (1 Timothy 2:11–13), but again they are both image-bearers and equal in Christ (Galatians 3:28).”
Purdum continues by saying that in biblical womanhood “God has a lot to say about the qualities of a woman made in His image. Let’s take a look at a couple.” She cites modesty and work and goes into a solid biblical exposition of those two concepts in light of the biblically defined roles for women. I suggest you read it in context at the site for more depth. (source)
In another essay at Answers in Genesis called Are Gender Roles a Social Construct? by Steve Golden, the author looks at the curse on men and women after the fall and how this curse might be affecting us today.
“A final point regards the Curse in Genesis 3. Here we see that Adam and Eve already had distinct roles, but as a result of the Curse, their roles became toilsome and painful. In verse 16, God graciously allowed Eve (and her female descendants) to bear children, but childbirth would be associated with a good deal of physical pain as well as concerns about bringing a child into this cursed world. Additionally, God tells Eve, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). Christians differ over what this verse means, but two likely interpretations arise: (1) Eve will try to usurp her husband’s role as head, but God is requiring Adam to keep her from doing so, resulting in conflict; or (2) Eve will try to usurp her husband’s role as head, and he will exercise unbiblical male domination over her.”
We see the evil results of that sin and its resulting curse today. In my opinion, many men have become tired of the conflict and have given up (by no longer attending church, so as to avoid the whole issue) or have given in (by accepting the recapitulation of the roles as some of the female celebrity teachers’ husbands have done.) The second chapter of Titus illustrates what is expected of Godly behavior of men and woman, the youth and the old:
“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” (Titus 2:1-10)
Ladies, modest and humble and loving wives do not disrespect their husbands on Facebook. It’s ugly when you do that. Just had to get that off my chest while I was thinking about it.
An example I came across of immodesty and irreverence toward the elder women comes from Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer at the 2009 “Deeper Still” Christian Women’s Conference in Greensboro NC. Robin Schumacher of Confident Christians used the account from an attendee in his power point teaching called “Got Ethics? Where is the Line?”
An Example of Getting it Wrong: One of the questions that the speakers addressed was, “What is the best part of marriage for you, and what is the most challenging?” When it came time for Priscilla to address the “most challenging part” of her marriage, she explained that she has two small children (one of whom she is still breast-feeding) and well, “I’m often just too tired, if you know what I mean, ladies! [Wink, wink.]”
To my (saddened) surprise, the arena of 10,000 women actually stood up and cheered. Various chimes of laughter, screaming, and “yeah, girl!” boomed in the packed house. This continued for about a minute, while even Beth Moore nodded, laughed and clapped at Ms. Shirer’s comment. Priscilla continued by relating a story of how she often tries to creep into bed after her husband falls asleep so that he won’t start coming on to her. Beth Moore admitted the same, and the more they discussed, the louder the cheering arena shouted and clapped in agreement.
I sat in my seat and was profoundly disturbed. Here I was at a Christian Women’s Conference, and our “trusted” female leaders were joking about avoiding their husbands in bed.
What happened next, I believe, shocked everyone.
An Example of Getting it Right: As all the shouting and cheering continued while Priscilla and Beth discussed the “too tired” syndrome, I turned my attention to Kay Arthur. This very beautiful, very wise woman was silently flipping through her Bible, which she kept on her lap during the discussion. Finally she looked up at her two fellow speakers and said very kindly but unflinchingly, “Now girls, I understand how you feel. We have all been there, myself included. I remember once sleeping on the very edge of my bed so that I could avoid my husband. I know what you mean. But let me show you something, please.” Kay picked up her Bible and then simply spoke:
“1 Corinthians 7:4-5. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
Oh if you could have seen the faces on Ms. Moore and Ms. Shirer! Ms. Moore had her mouth half-open in disbelief, and Ms. Shirer raised her eyebrows and opened her eyes wider in shock. The Coliseum’s chorus of cheers changed to a disgruntled murmur. I do believe I was the only one clapping.
After a brief pause, the two rebuked women turned to the audience and said with a half eye-roll, “Oh, well Ms. Kay has a verse for everything, doesn’t she?!” The crowd laughed again. Ms. Shirer continued, commenting that her husband loves to eat, so she was doubtful there would be a lot of abstaining for fasting. Ms. Moore agreed. The crowd continued laughing and cheering.
Kay Arthur continued her uncompromising, yet gentle rebuke. “Girls, again, I understand fully what you’re saying, but I’m merely telling you what God has to say about sex between a husband and wife. You are not to deprive one another, except for prayer or fasting. So, unless you’re doing that, you’re not to avoid your husband… and he should not avoid you either.”
Nervous giggles and pauses were all that remained from Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer. Finally, Priscilla exclaimed, “Well! On to another topic, shall we?!” To which the crowd laughed enthusiastically.
Biblical womanhood is supposed to be submissive to elders, and yet Mrs Moore and Mrs Shirer reportedly disrespected an elder and refused an opportunity to apologize to the audience and repent to God. What an example they could have demonstrated of biblical womanhood to thousands of attendees! They could have edified Jesus! But instead they introduced an off-color topic, disrespected their husbands, engaged in unsound speech, dissed an elder woman, and refused submission to the clear teaching of the Word. (See Titus verses above). This is not biblical womanhood. It is Christian feminism. Mrs Arthur is to be praised for handling the situation in a biblical, loving fashion. THAT is biblical womanhood according to Titus 2!
The outcome of the curse in Genesis 3 is coming home to roost now. In Revelation 2 we read of a church that Jesus praises in some ways but condemns in others. Let’s finish the series with a look at it in terms of what happens to those who accept false teaching from women who rebel.
Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3
How the Christian secret feminists are reforming the definition of biblical womanhood. Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3
By Elizabeth Prata
There are some books coming out today that focus on the concept “biblical womanhood” written by a new breed of Christian women who call themselves Christian feminists. And there are some celebrity woman Bible teachers today who say that they live a life of biblical womanhood but their lives show something different. Biblical womanhood seems to be the next big fad, and that is for a reason. So let’s take a look at what the new Christian feminism is and what biblical womanhood is.
“A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” was the feminist motto of the 1970s. The implication was that women didn’t ‘need’ a man at all.
Readers of the blog already know that I am not a fan of feminism. I wrote an essay called “The Eternal Discontent of Feminists“, in which I looked at the hypocritical standard secular feminists themselves apply to other women who are perceived as not doing feminism right. That, more than anything, lets us know that feminism is not about equal rights for women, it is about satan’s sowing of discontent among women and causing a division away from the Godly roles He has set up.
I also wrote a three-part series on the rise of the “Feminist Theologians” who attack the notion that Jesus was really a male. I am not making this up.
Feminism has encroached into Christianity. I think most people are still slumbering because I haven’t seen a hue and cry against it. Granted, it is subtle, especially in the women who claim to be evangelical but life a feminist life.
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There are now a number of popular Bible teachers/preachers who travel widely, filling arenas, marketing their books, selling their products, and leaving the husband at home to take care of the kids. These women have assumed the lead role in the marriage and are the main breadwinner, and the husband is the helpmeet, usually having set aside his career to work in his wife’s corporation ministry. While these women call what they are doing “ministry,” I call it “feminism”.
As with so much in evangelical Christianity, the waters are increasingly muddied on what should be clear. What is biblical womanhood? In today’s world is it the Bible preaching, sometimes ordained woman, traveling cross country, her husband at home helping with the kids, often having quit his job to help his famous wife perform her ministry?
Or it is a woman with a terribly flawed view of the Bible who sits in a tent when she has per period as a practice for what it was like to be a woman of the Bible for one year?
Or it is a new feminist who is open to women being ordained, to preaching, and/or to acceptance of gays into leadership positions while touting the rising up of women from subjugated roles?
There is new crop of what I’ll call Christian secret feminists. They live a feminist life inside of Christianity but call it ministry. One woman who has much to answer for about this new role is Beth Moore. She was the one who broke new ground in how far a woman could go in attaining celebrity status, in workplace and homelife gender reversals, in being the main and sustained breadwinner of the family, and teaching in a church and in the world. Mrs Moore, while speaking conservative values cloaked in all the right Christianese, lives a very forward life. You will see more details on this below.
A spiritual daughter of Mrs Moore in this generation of new Christian secret feminists is Christine Caine. Mrs Caine’s language is less cloaked in her declarations of what women can or should see as their roles in Christian home and work life. Mrs Caine is an ordained minister and part of Hillsong Church in Australia.
For example, in an interview reassuring Pastor’s wives that despite Caine’s visible usurpation of the traditional husband-wife roles, that their stay-at-home role is still viable: “Predominantly I might teach a little bit and I step out into what would be the more classic leadership gift, so a lot of people say ‘I’m not that, so therefore I must not have a role to play…'”
It is no wonder that woman are confused when they see peers taking on the ‘classic leadership gift’. And that is one way they cloak their rebellion in Christianese: it is not a role or a job, it is a ‘gift’. Ultimately, women would not need reassurance from other women that their biblical role is still viable if they themselves were not setting it aside.
Christine continues in the interview by acknowledging that there are “women who are gentle and loving and nurturing”, and there are other “women who come along side and do a bit more “non-gentle prodding help people go to the next level.” But that in “no way diminishes your role.”
Really? Sure it does. It sets up women to be discontent. By justifying herself in the leadership role as a gift from God (and who can argue with that?) and acknowledging that there are ‘levels’ and women need to get to, but at the same time saying it is important to stay at home and be nurturing…she had completely confused any listener as to the clear guidelines of the notion of what Biblical womanhood is. She says one thing (and not too clearly, either) and does another.
Discernment tip: one way to detect if a person is in the Word is to see if what they say and what they do match up over time. If what they say and what they do are different, run away. Beth Moore is a good example of that, see below.
Mrs Caine’s reassurances use a neat scriptural twist. The way satan works with any woman’s objection to women taking on home or ministry leadership roles is to acknowledge that the women feel weak or unsure in them, but to get around it by assuring them that all they need to do is have courage to step out and let Jesus work through their weakness, citing 2 Corinthians 12:9. But the reason women feel hesitant about it in the first place is because this is not the definition of biblical womanhood. In Mrs Caine’s world of the new Christian secret feminist, a women needs courage, not meekness. Yet in the same breath she says women need to be weak… so is that the courage to be weak, or strength to be courageous, I’m confused.
I hope by now in using Mrs Caine’s example you’ll see how, once a women steps out of the biblical role assigned to her by God, satan sows confusion in their reasoning on why it is all right to rebel. A discerning person will really listen to what she is saying, listen to how she is saying it, and look at the life she is leading to make a decision on whether this teacher is someone to learn from.
In that same interview, Mrs Caine said, “The only way I was able to continue in my role is that my senior pastor’s wife stepped into her role and chose not to be threatened or intimidated because the giftings were different.”
Oh, I get it. Women are now complementarians to each other. It’s the height of irony that again, unwittingly, Mrs Caine acknowledges that these new ‘roles’ set up discontent and that she is glad that in her situation at least, the pastor’s wife wasn’t jealous of her fabulous gift. A good portion of the middle of the interview is Caine’s description of how women are to be complementarian of each other in church settings. One takes the wifely nurturing role so that the younger ones coming up can step out, so to speak. Now, female support between and among ministries is a good thing, and it is biblically commanded. (Titus 2:4) but the description in Titus is for elder women to teach the younger is in their biblically defined helpmeet role, not to be a helpmeet to other women who step out into classic male roles. It is another twist of using the Bible to justify what is not proper.
One last quote from Mrs Caine.
Mrs Caine said, “You don’t have to accept anybody else’s decision about what you should be, this is how you should act, well, you’re the Pastor’s wife, I mean that’s the worst thing, that you would bow down to what someone else thinks. But that you would take the challenge of saying, God, for my house, how can I best lead, and what does that look like?”
Do you see how the incremental attack by satan has moved from the more cloaked feminist language from Mrs Moore’s generation to the new crop who just plainly state it? I keep bringing this generational difference up because of the verse in Revelation 2 I will be looking at in the next part of this examination.
Priscilla Shirer is another of these new Christian secret feminists whose life is more forward than their spiritual mothers. I’ve posted this before but it bears repeating:
“The NY Times article notes that Mr Shirer spends much of the day negotiating Priscilla’s speaking invitations and her book contracts. In the afternoon it’s often Mr Shirer who collects the boys from school. Back home, Priscilla and Jerry divide chores and child care equally. “Jerry quit his job to run his wife’s ministry. Priscilla now accepts about 20 out of some 300 speaking invitations each year, and she publishes a stream of Bible studies, workbooks and corresponding DVDs intended for women to read and watch with their girlfriends from church. Jerry does his share of housework and child care so that Priscilla can study and write. He travels with his wife everywhere. Whenever possible, they take their sons along on her speaking trips, but they often deposit the boys with Jerry’s mother.”‘
If you delete the name Shirer and substitute Gloria Steinem, and change ministry to job you have a description of a life that any feminist would be proud of.
By now Beth Moore is one of the elders in this realm. Moore has been “on the ministry circuit” for 15 years. Thus, her rebellious example has been long in view for many women who have watched her since they were an impressionable teen. So is Sheryl Brady and Joyce Meyer. Those women were the trailblazers for women in male leadership ministry. Newcomers arriving on the scene such as Priscilla Shirer or Christine Caine have learned from the best of the Christian secret feminists. For example:
Beth Moore said to Christianity Today in 2010 that her man demanded a regular home life so she only travels every other Friday and comes right back home the next day.
“We walk the dogs together and eat out together all the time and lie on the floor with pillows and watch TV,” Moore says. “My man demanded attention and he got it, and my man demanded a normal home life and he got it.”
Aww, isn’t that nice. But it’s disingenuous in the extreme. The reality is that Mrs Moore is not only gone from home at least 20 times per year on her Living Proof tours, which is a lot if you have kids and a husband. Mrs Moore appears weekly on the Life Today television show, travels for weeks on book tours, where she expounds on the burning question all women in America are apparently asking, “How can women find validation without a man’s affirmation?” and which her book So Long, Insecurity apparently attempts to answer.
She also spends extended private time for weeks in a cabin by herself in Wyoming to write (as stated in the preface to “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things”). She is the President of her own company that in 2011 brought in 4.1 million dollars, with an excess after expenses of 1.3M, stated working hours of 40/week. If you think all she does is lay around on pillows gazing adoringly at her man then all I can say is look at what she does, not what she says. Beth Moore is a Christian secret feminist because for years she has lived that way, no matter what she tells Christianity Today.
It is no wonder women are confused when they see Beth Moore telling us that you can have it all, and still be a Christian woman, if you call it ministry. Enjoli.
Rachel Held Evans “is one of the better known Christian writers in mainline and progressive circles these days. Her new book examines what it would mean to live life as a woman according to the Biblical laws for a year. It’s in the vein of books like AJ Jacobs’ “The Year of Living Biblically” and other “human guinea pig” projects. The book is funny, thoughtful and empowering for women seeking to understand where they fit within a faith that has largely been controlled by men for centuries” writes Patheos.
Ms Evans says she is an accidental feminist, writing on her blog, “Most of all, if these critics knew me, they would know that it isn’t feminism that inspires me to advocate gender equality in the Church and in the world; it is the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
That seems to be another approach to justifying Christian feminism, “it was an accident”, or “God surprised me with this ministry” as Priscilla Shirer says, as if stating that since it was all out of their hands they are not nor will be morally and spiritually culpable on the Lord’s day of Judgment. And I can assure Mrs Evans that Jesus did not deliver the Gospel by His blood so she could use it to promote a different role for women than He has already ordained.
We have looked at some of today’s most popular Christian secret and open feminists, the old guard and the new pups coming up. I offered you some examples from their own statements of how their lives in reality more match the secular world’s view of a strong feminist woman rather than the biblical helpmeet.
In the next part I’ll look at two things, both biblical. One is the book of Revelation’s condemnation of the church at Thyatira and the spiritual adultery rampant there due to a false prophetess, and the other is the biblical role of women as outlined in Proverbs, Titus and other books.
The old saying from the 70s, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” was the feminist motto. Now the only difference for today’s Christian secret feminist is the logo on her purse.
Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3
Is Jesus a rehashed myth from the more ancient Horus?
This is going around Facebook. I saw it when a relative of mine posted it. (Yes, I grieve and pray)
Of course, the Horus information is false.
When the actual writings about Horus are competently examined, this is what we find:
• Horus was born to Isis; there is no mention in history of her being called “Mary.” Moreover, Mary is our anglicized form of her real name ‘Miryam’ or Miriam. “Mary” was not even used in the original texts of Scripture.
• Isis was not a virgin; she was the widow of Osiris and conceived Horus with Osiris.
• Horus was born during month of Khoiak (Oct/Nov), not December 25. Further, there is no mention in the Bible as to Christ’s actual birth date.
• There is no record of three kings visiting Horus at his birth. The Bible never states the actual number of magi that came to see Christ.
• Horus is not a “savior” in any shape or form; he did not die for anyone.
• There are no accounts of Horus being a teacher at the age of 12.
• Horus was not “baptized.” The only account of Horus that involves water is one story where Horus is torn to pieces, with Isis requesting the crocodile god to fish him out of the water he was placed into.
• Horus did not have a “ministry.”
• Horus did not have 12 disciples. According to the Horus accounts, Horus had four semi-gods that were followers and some indications of 16 human followers and an unknown number of blacksmiths that went into battle with him.
• There is no account of Horus being betrayed by a friend.
• Horus did not die by crucifixion. There are various accounts of Horus’ death, but none of them involve crucifixion.
• There is no account of Horus being buried for three days.
• Horus was not resurrected. There is no account of Horus coming out of the grave with the body he went in with. Some accounts have Horus/Osiris being brought back to life by Isis and going to be the lord of the underworld.
Much more at the source as to why this side-by-side comparison of Jesus and Horus is a fallacy of the false cause and a terminological fallacy: GotQuestions.
Meanwhile, GotQuestions reports on the integrity of the biblical record,
“The last issue to examine on this subject is the truthfulness of the New Testament itself. While much has been written on this topic, no work from antiquity has more evidence with respect to historical veracity than the New Testament. The New Testament has more writers (nine), better writers, and earlier writers than any other document from that era. Further, history testifies to the fact that these writers went to their deaths for claiming that Jesus had risen from the dead. While some may die for a lie they think is true, no person dies for a lie they know to be false. Think about it—if someone was about to crucify you upside down, as happened to the Apostle Peter, and all you had to do to save your life was renounce a lie you had knowingly been living, what would you do?”
“In addition, history has shown that it takes at least two generations to pass before myth can enter into a historical account. Why? Because eyewitnesses can refute error put in print. Those living at the time could refute the errors of the author and expose the work as being false. All the Gospels of the New Testament were written during the lifetime of the eyewitnesses, with some of Paul’s epistles being written as early as 50 A.D. That early dating acts as a key protective mechanism against any falsehoods being accepted and circulated.”
“Finally, the New Testament attests to the fact that the portrayal of Jesus was not mistaken for that of any other god. When faced with Paul’s teaching, the elite thinkers of Athens said this: “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean” (Acts 17:18-20). Clearly, if the accounts of Jesus were simply rehashing stories of other gods, the Athenians would not have referred to them as “new” teaching. If dying and rising gods were plentiful in the first century why, when the apostle Paul preached Jesus rising from the dead in Acts 17, did the Epicureans and Stoics not remark, “Ah, just like Horus and Mithras”? “
“In conclusion, the claims that Jesus is nothing more than a myth, a copy of mythological gods, originated from authors whose works have been discounted by academia, commit logical fallacies that undermine their veracity, and cannot compare to the New Testament Gospels which have withstood nearly 2,000 years of intense scrutiny.”
So when compared side by side, Jesus and Horus bear no resemblance to one another. And remember, only Jesus saves.
Space jumping and Daniel’s prophecy
“But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” (Daniel 12:4).
Does this prophecy, the famous one in Daniel, mean that technology and science and widespread travel are a sign of the end times? Yes and no.
First of all, the end time has been since Jesus ascended and will end when He returns. In that case, the advances of the Romans in installing indoor plumbing, aqueducts, hot and cold running water, as many roads as are equivalent with the United States Interstate system, and the Colosseum are indicators of the end time as much as our current Interstate, the Houston Superdome, and Kohler’s no-touch kitchen faucet are.
As a matter of fact, no one still knows the how the ancients came up with the technology behind the Great Pyramid at Giza, as mathematically, architecturally, and astronomically perfect as it is.
So what does the verse in Daniel mean? Barnes’ Notes proposes one interpretation:
“Many shall run to and fro – Shall pass up and down in the world, or shall go from place to place. The reference is clearly to those who should thus go to impart knowledge; to give information; to call the attention of men to great and important matters. The language is applicable to any methods of imparting important knowledge, and it refers to a time when this would be the characteristic of the age. There is nothing else to which it can be so well applied as to the labors of Christian missionaries, and ministers of the gospel, and others who, in the cause of Christian truth, go about to rouse the attention of men to the great subjects of religion; and the natural application of the language is to refer it to the times when the gospel would be preached to the world at large.”
MacArthur explains it this way:
“At that time, many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased.” Now this is a most interesting phrase, been interpreted many ways. Let me give you what is the basic interpretation, the words, the context that I think makes real sense. It is not talking about the increase of scientific knowledge primarily, although that may be an allusion or an implication that could be drawn. What it is talking about is this, many people in the Tribulation, the time of the end, are going to run to and fro trying to find out answers to what’s going on. And they’re going to find the book of Daniel and at that point, their knowledge will be increased.”
So I don’t think we can be dogmatic that this or that is definitely what the verse means. After all, the Lord said to seal it up until the end. If we are still debating what it means then obviously He hasn’t unsealed the meaning to us yet, though we do have more of a clue today than in Daniel’s day, I believe, because we are so close to the end
Francis Bacon, English philosopher of the 1600s Restoration was influential in insisting that the advances in science currently underway should be for the betterment of man. He urged a more utilitarian approach instead of a contemplative one, and thus, he was a forerunner of the Industrial Revolution. However, just as ominously, Bacon said in his major work, “Novum Organum” (the second part of the Instauration), he stated his view that the restoration of science was part of the “partial returning of mankind to the state it lived before the fall”, restoring its dominion over creation, while religion and faith would partially restore mankind’s original state of innocence and purity.” (source)
In this way, Bacon kicked us into high gear in replacing God with science.
Bacon’s motto was “Multi pertransibunt & augebitur scientia” = “many will pass through and knowledge will be the greater”, as seen on the frontspiece of his major work. It is a direct reference to Daniel’s verse.
The title page of Novum Organum depicts a galleon passing between the mythical Pillars of Hercules that stand either side of the Strait of Gibraltar, marking the exit from the well-charted waters of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic Ocean. The Pillars, as the boundary of the Mediterranean, have been smashed through opening a new world to exploration. Men have been unleashed to sail new waters of thought, science, and technology. Bacon hoped that empirical investigation will, similarly, smash the old scientific ideas and lead to greater understanding of the world and heavens. The Latin tag across the bottom is taken from the Book of Daniel 12:4. Bacon is thought of as the father of empiricism.
So each age has been amazed by science and technological advances. However up above I said ‘yes and no’ to the question as to whether technological advances are a sign of the end time. I don’t think it can be related firmly to the Daniel verse but I also think it can be seen as a mirror of man’s status a la Tower of Babel.
As man’s achievements grow, his pride grows too. The prouder man gets of his works the more he says he doesn’t need God. I also believe this generation has seen the most growth in God-dishonoring science and technology than any generation before. “Safe abortions”? What an oxymoron. Safe for whom, exactly?? We go into space to prove God is not there. Though we have heeded Bacon’s plea to create things from science and technology for the betterment of man, we have also gone far away from God with it.
“Future Shock is a book written by the futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. In the book, Toffler defines the term “future shock” as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. His shortest definition for the term is a personal perception of “too much change in too short a period of time”. Toffler argued that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a “super-industrial society”. This change overwhelms people, he believed, the accelerated rate of technological and social change leaving people disconnected and suffering from “shattering stress and disorientation”—future shocked.” (Wiki)
I believe that we are in a state of future shock now.
Though things did change dramatically between 1950 and 1970 when Toffler observed and prompted him to write of the advances and their impacts in society, that change has accelerated even more dramatically from 1970 to now. This isn’t just a feeling. It is actually related to technological change, and has been observed in Moore’s Law.
Moore’s law is the observation that over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years.
“The capabilities of many digital electronic devices are strongly linked to Moore’s law: processing speed, memory capacity, sensors and even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras. All of these are improving at (roughly) exponential rates as well. This exponential improvement has dramatically enhanced the impact of digital electronics in nearly every segment of the world economy. Moore’s law describes a driving force of technological and social change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.” (source)
Vernor Vinge popularized his ideas about exponentially accelerating technological change in the SF novel Marooned in Realtime (1986), set in a world of rapidly accelerating progress leading to the emergence of more and more sophisticated technologies separated by shorter and shorter time intervals, until a point beyond human comprehension is reached.
This accelerating trend has continued for more than half a century.
My half a century.
When I was born, man had not gone into space yet. Now a man jumped from space to the earth. I believe this most rapid change in technology and science has been due to the birth of the modern computer age in 1970. The world’s first general microprocessor came out on Nov. 1971 and we have never been the same.
In this bewildering world of advanced quantum technology, iPhones, space jumping, Mars roving pace, please remember that the Lord never changes. He is steady constant, and eternal. His timing is perfect. At just the right moment He will call us home, and our joy will be complete. Personally, I’m looking forward to a world without cell phones 🙂
The everlasting love of God
Jeremiah 31:3-
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
Now keeping in mind His unfailing and everlasting love, compare the Jeremiah verse to this video which depicts the prostitute going away from her loving husband and the husband lovingly pursuing her, Part 3 of The Hosea Love Story
And that should remind us all of His perfect and everlasting love to men. I hope this brightened your day!
[TY to EBenz for helping me re-find the Hosea clip]
EU goes for Fiscal Overlord, Tensions in Mid-East, earthwquakes in diverse places, more news
Here is some news I feel is of prophetic importance.
Yesterday I posted a piece about how the world is bent on uniting. The unification of world’s religions (ecumenism), and the unification of world economies rampant. The pace at which economies are melding into one is breathtaking. I had posted a quote from an article: “The competition Czar is the arch-enforcer of the EU machine, with powers to launch dawn raids, deploy SWAT teams, and block mergers on his own authority.”
Wow, that is a lot of power. But that wasn’t the point of the article. In addition to the Competition Czar, the call for a European Union Fiscal Overlord shocked many in Europe: “EU “currency commissioner” with sweeping powers to strike down national budgets; a “large step towards fiscal union.”
Well, today they decided to go for it. They are going to make one man be Europe’s Fiscal Overlord. UPI reports, “EU leaders agreed to create a single banking overseer for the eurozone that could aid ailing banks…” Germany and the UK hassled over some details, but it looks like it will be a done deal. The timeline is as follows: “The 27 EU heads of state and government agreed “on a political framework for the end of 2012 and a gradual implementation in 2013” of a new EU single supervisory mechanism
As I had mentioned in the previous blog about this topic, The Tower of Babel is an object lesson on how mans evil is magnified when man congregates. His pride and his rebellion always comes out when man unites. Further, there is a problem when one man wields tremendous power: there are fewer, if any, checks and balances.
Here is some more news:
WEATHER
Dust storm shuts down interstate in northern Okla.
“A massive dust storm swirling reddish-brown clouds over northern Oklahoma triggered a multi-vehicle accident along a major interstate Thursday, forcing police to shut down part of the heavily traveled roadway amid near blackout conditions. In a scene reminiscent of the Dust Bowl days, choking dust suspended on strong wind gusts shrouded Interstate 35, which links Dallas and Oklahoma City to Kansas City, Mo. Video from television station helicopters showed the four-lane highway virtually disappearing into billowing dust on the harsh landscape near Blackwell, plus dozens of vehicles scattered in the median and on the shoulders. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Jodi Palmer, a dispatcher with the Kay County Sheriff’s Office.”
Small earthquake rattles western Nebraska
” An earthquake has rattled western Nebraska, but local officials aren’t reporting any injuries or property damage.The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude 3.6 earthquake happened at 11:21 p.m. Wednesday. It was centered about 18 miles northwest of Hyannis.
Moderate earthquake rattles Egypt, felt in Israel
5.0-magnitude quake comes two days ahead of Israel’s large-scale preparedness drill
“A moderate earthquake rattled Egypt early Friday morning and was felt as far as Israel, two days before a scheduled nationwide earthquake-preparedness drill here.The tremor, measuring a magnitude of 5.0 on the Richter scale, occurred at approximately 5:30 a.m. local time. It did not cause any injuries or damage, according to initial reports.The epicenter of the quake was approximately 95 miles (150 kilometers) north of the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria.”
Tornadoes, severe storms swat Southeast; 7 hurt
“At least four tornadoes were part of the storm system that raked northern and central Mississippi on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, injuring at least seven people, the National Weather Service said. … Radar weather maps overnight showed a huge, arcing front that swept across Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and parts of states such as Louisiana and Alabama on its march eastward on a jagged slant.”
CULTURE
Feminist Agenda
A self-stated feminist Christian woman wrote this- which is an oxymoron. One cannot be a feminist AND a Christian.
Woman Lives Biblically: Feminist Calls Husband “Master”
“A woman who decided to live “biblically” for one year and wrote a book about her findings is garnering heaps of praise and criticism for her decision.
“Rachel Held Evans, who describes herself as a feminist Christian, says her end goal had everything to do with being a woman, despite what her critics are saying. “Evans says she wanted “To call into question that there is a single blueprint of how to be a woman. There’s no single model in the Bible – as soon as you think you have found it a woman comes along and breaks it. Everyone picks and chooses. There are verses that say ‘submit to your husband’, but also those that say ‘submit to one another’. The more women know about the bible the more they can respond when people try to silence them.”
“During what she calls “The Womanhood Project“, Evans made her own clothes, grew her hair out, lived outside her home in a tent when she was having her period, called her husband “Master”, and sat alone on the roof of her home as penance after deciding she had been gossiping or nagging, which comes from the Bible verse “it is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman”. In doing so, she hoped to gain a greater understanding of the Bible and a woman’s role according to it, which is sometimes presented as contradictory passages.”
For Denny Burk’s take on the book’s premise (he wrote it before the book was published) go here.
Homosexual Agenda
Marriage Law likely headed to Supreme Court
A federal appeals court ruling on Thursday has catapulted a New York case to the head of the line, as the Supreme Court considers which of many cases it should use to decide whether the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is constitutional. For more than a year, the lower courts have been issuing decisions striking down DOMA, declaring the law’s provisions to be unconstitutional discrimination. The statute defines marriage as being only between a man and a woman, meaning that the federal government is barred from recognizing same-sex marriages even when they are legal and recognized by state law. So, if a same-sex couple is legally married in any of the six states where gay marriage is authorized, that marriage is not recognized by the federal government.”
“Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh backtracked slightly on his controversial remarks about abortion, saying today that there are “very rare circumstances” in which a pregnant woman may need to undergo an abortion to save her life. The comment stood in contrast to the tea party icon’s declaration following a Thursday night debate that medical advances had rendered it unnecessary to ever perform an abortion to save a mother’s life.”
Google “backlash,” “Walsh” and “abortion” and you will see the ruckus the abortion pushers made. It caused the staunch pro-life politician to “backtrack slightly” which really means he tucked tail and ran like a scalded dog.
MIDDLE EAST
Lebanon spy chief killed as Syria tensions spill over border
“A massive bomb ripped through a crowded Beirut street killed Lebanon’s most senior intelligence official and at least seven others as Lebanon divisions over Syria’s civil war spills over into factional conflict.”
Turkey fires on Syria in retaliation following shell launch
“Turkey’s army fired on Syria on Friday after two shells launched from Syria landed in Turkish territory, Turkish state broadcaster TRT reported, underlining how tension between the two neighbors remains dangerously high.”
Clashes erupt at Greek anti-austerity protests
“Greek police clashed with anti-austerity protesters hurling stones and petrol bombs on the day of a general strike that brought much of the near-bankrupt country to a standstill.In the second major walkout in three weeks on Thursday, almost 40,000 protesters marched in Athens in a bid to show EU leaders meeting in Brussels that new wage and pension cuts will only worsen their plight after five years of recession.Tensions mounted when a small group of protesters began throwing pieces of marble, bottles and petrol bombs at police barricading part of the square in front of parliament, prompting riot police to fire several rounds of teargas to disperse them.”
You see fires like that and read that it was caused by someone throwing a Molotov cocktail in Greece and you don’t gasp because people just don’t do that in the US. But when we read of a Molotov cocktail being thrown at a Virginia Mall, now we gasp.
Arson charge after Molotov cocktail
“The man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail into the food court at a northern Virginia mail stood silently and refused to answer any questions at an initial court appearance Friday.Leon Alphans Traille Jr., 29, of no fixed address, was charged Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria with arson. … A court affidavit says that a man matching Traille’s description threw a Molotov cocktail — in this case a brown glass bottle holding at least 16 ounces of flammable liquid with matches taped to the bottle — into the mall’s food court shortly after noon Thursday. The device did not explode but produced a flame that was extinguished, according to the affidavit. Traille then went to second floor of the mall and left behind three similar bottles before leaving, according to the affidavit.”
That is just a bit of the news for you. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and pray always. Jesus is our Savior and our Sustainer, Far from being disheartened by these things, we take comfort in knowing the things He told us would happen are happening, so His word is true. We love that He is coming soon. Be listening fo the Trumpet while always loving one another in spirit and in truth.
Till next time, if there is one…
Verses that resonated with me this week. How about you?
I’m reading through Jeremiah right now. Well, ‘reading through’ is a bit of a misnomer. I intended to read through, but I can’t seem to get past Jeremiah 1 & 2 and I got stuck at one section in Jeremiah 23 for a bit. I keep getting stuck at the freshness of the verses and the application they make to my heart. I guess for a while I’ll be chewing on Jeremiah 1-2 as meat and not reading through in one swoop. I love meditating on Jeremiah as I ponder the truths there. The verses seem to applicable to today! There are three in particular that stopped me cold, and made me really think.
I don’t know if this happens to you, but I would be reading along and then I hit a brick wall at 60 mph. Even in trying to share how hard they hit me, words fail. The depth of spiritual application, the welling-up of personal emotion, and the hard mental stress I felt when the verses lit up my Spirit cannot be described. This is one verse that hit me:
#1– Thus says the Lord:
“What wrong did your fathers find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? (Jeremiah 2:5)
that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? (Jeremiah 2:5)
This verse is devastating when you think about it. God uses a rhetorical question to ask ‘what is the matter with me that you go after idols?’ It is rhetorical because, of course, there is nothing the matter with God. He is perfect. Therefore the answer should be clear. It is ridiculous to go away from God because there is no substitute. We know this in our heads, but the verse hit me in the heart. I prayed that I would not go away from Him in any way.
“for my people have committed two evils:they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
(Jer 2:13) (source).
Trying to carry water in a sieve…how sad to think of all the effort and work a non-believer would go through to attain a semblance of religious favor is pointless. The water will always run out. It does nothing except fall on the ground, void. The point is stark: Jesus is the Living Water and His water refreshes and never runs out.
This next verse which gets me at the core of my Spirit is this one: the hammer–
“Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29).
The Word has the power to shatter a hard heart. This truth both pierces me and sustains me. I hope that you have moments when you are reading the Word you come across a verse that really brings fresh illumination to its truths.
What has stopped you in your tracks lately?
Why we need revival, according to Leonard Ravenhill
In a Revival conference from 1989, Leonard Ravenhill was asked what is the greatest need in the church in America today?
“for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)
“No matter how big your church is, the Sunday Morning attendance doesn’t matter… everyone goes to church on Sunday morning. Instead, Ravenhill asked, “How many have you got in your prayer meeting? The prayer meeting is almost dead. “I believe the spiritual condition in America at this moment lower than it was during the revival 1700s revival with Jonathan Edwards. We have forsaken God, in particular we have forsaken the prayer meeting.”
Pray!
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” (Philippians 4:6)
Prayer offers access by one Spirit unto the Father through Christ. (Ephesians 2:18)
God hears prayer. He hears it, He will not forsake you!
–“O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.” (Psalms 65:2)
–“And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. (Revelation 5:8)
Prayer brings revival. Pray!
