Author: elizabethprata

Christian writer and Georgia reading teacher who loves Jesus, a quiet life, art, beauty, and children.
Posted in bible, christmas, repent

About blogging…

Posted on by elizabethprata

In January of 2009 I started this blog. It wasn’t my first blog. In August 2006 I started The Quiet Life, a more personal blog and one which I still keep up to this day. I picked up on blogging only a bit late, 2004 was proclaimed the Year of the Blog. Before that I’d been writing for newspapers and before that I’d been writing academic papers for Universities as a graduate student. 2004 was the year that the medium burst onto the scene and journalism has never been the same. Neither have activism, diaries, relationships, or book publishing. Even some churches have their own anonymous blogger watchdogs.

So in 2009 I received a conviction that my lifetime of writing would and could be put to good use for Jesus. World Wide Web outreach was possible through this medium. However, I was daunted in January of 2009 by the sheer number of blogs out there. Blogs covered every topic and every corner of the internet. “[T]he current estimates say there are about 450 million “active” English language blogs right now, but that number varies according to the source. Technorati estimated over 200 million blogs at the start of 2009, with exponential growth since then.” (source)

200 million blogs? Plus one more? Was anyone even going to notice my blog? My paltry words floating out on the ethersphere? But I leaped in, confident that the Holy Spirit knew what He was doing and that even if only one person ever read this blog that it would be the right person at the right time. So on January 6, 2012 it  will be the three-year anniversary of this blog. I’ve blogged on this blog 1411 times, an average of 470 essays per year. More than one a day, every day, for three years. The Holy Spirit is endlessly creative.

I thought that the economic crash of October 2008 was a huge end time sign and was pleased to be used of the Lord for His name by writing. I love writing and I love the Lord so it is literally a match made in heaven. Through prayer and bible study the Spirit makes me aware of the deeper things of the Word and then I can turn around and write on topics I feel led by the Spirit to write about. If what I write is of the Spirit, He will pierce the heart of the person and they will be convicted, or encouraged. I’m humbled by this process, and often am reduced to tears of thanks when someone writes that they were moved by something on the blog. When that happens it is a visible manifestation to me of the Spirit’s working in the world.

But not so many visitors came in 2009 even after the crash. People still thought what was happening in the world was kind of normal. I didn’t think so but I knew the nature of birth pangs would be such that eventually they’d become noticeable to a wider swathe of the population, and then they would come running for answers. Hopefully they would accept Jesus as that answer.

For all of 2010 there were still millions of blogs being opened each day. I blogged on. Sometimes I’d get discouraged that the people would not respond as well to the theological posts as they would the weird posts. Essays about UFOs or sinkholes or weird noises or vampires always got lots of hits and the ones about Jesus being God … didn’t. But in the end I was grateful that someone felt compelled to read what is here because that meant they were searching for a Divine reason for the weird things happening rather than a secular one.

In January 2011 the page views went from the steady hundreds per day as they had been for two years, to a steady thousands per day. If you remember January 2011 opened with Aflockalypse. That was the world-wide event where thousands of birds at various locations simply dropped dead to the ground. Then it started happening with fish and then other wildlife such as starfish or penguins or seals. THAT seemed to get people’s attention in a way that even the economic crash of 2008 hadn’t. In March 2011 was the all-time high for page views and you’ll remember that was when the Japan earthquake and tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster occurred. People were awake now.

Since Aflockalypse, the page views have only been upward.  Last night I passed 1 million views.

Though the numbers are humbling to me, they aren’t really so great in the blogosphere. Many, many other blogs get a million views per day, not a million views in three years. But I wanted to take a moment to thank the Holy Spirit for this ministry, because each and every one of those views is a blessing. Someone, somewhere, looked at a page here and in so doing learned a little bit about Jesus. Each time I write I aim to exalt Him, and to promote that He has a plan for each of us and that it is available to each of us if we will just repent of our sins.

I boast of Him, and the opportunities and ministries He gives us for His name. Delivering information about Jesus, connecting people with Jesus, alerting people about Jesus’ soon arrival, urging people to repent before it is too late, are blessings for me to perform in His name. Seeing the interest in prophecy go up as the page views rise (not just my blog but many others) means that people are becoming alerted to the times. They are waking up. And it is a blessing because He gave us a more sure word, prophecy, and it is coming to pass just as He said. (2 Peter 1:12-21).

THIS is the reason for this blog: (Philippians 2:6-11):

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

I want this blog to be as this verse, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Thank you all for your visits and your encouragement. I will keep blogging until the day I die or the rapture, whichever comes first. I will keep proclaiming the Goodness of Jesus until the end of time and then for all eternity. I hope that for your Christmas present you fall out of love with your sin and in love with the Savior from your sins.

As we read in the above sermon, “Romans 10:9-10, ‘If you confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you’ll be saved.’ Saved from hell, from sin, from judgment. Better to confess it now and go on confessing it forever in heaven than to go on confessing it in bitterness and remorse forever in hell. Every tongue will confess it.” (source). Will you confess today? It would be the best Christmas present ever.

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/about-blogging.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in homosexuality, lesbian kiss, navy

"Kiss heard ’round the world: Lesbians chosen for Navy tradition"

Posted on by elizabethprata

This news from the LA Times last night:
“A public embrace between two female sailors from California is being hailed as “the kiss heard ’round the world” by activists who fought for a repeal of the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. Navy officials said it was the first time a same-sex couple was chosen to have the first kiss. The first-kiss is a Navy tradition for ships returning to port. Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta from Placerville shared a kiss with partner Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell of Los Angeles on Wednesday as Gaeta’s ship, the amphibious landing ship Oak Hill, returned to base at Virginia Beach, Va., after an 80-day deployment to Central America.”

Homosexuality is a sin.

“and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;” (2 Peter 2:6).

More than that, it its own judgment.

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.” (Romans 1:24-26).

When unrepented individuals sin, they are or will be judged. The progression of judgment of sin in the verse above actually begins in verse 18. It says that people suppress the truth by their wickedness, therefore God is wrathful. The truth that they are suppressing is the knowledge of the Creator in His creation. He has made it plain to them! But because they were wicked, they suppressed it, and in their suppression, they failed to give Him glory or thanks.

The next part in the progression is that He then darkens their foolish hearts. Then, though they claim to be wise, them become as fools, and they squander the glory of God by exchanging the “glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.” (v. 23)

Then our verse picks up. Therefore He then gives them over to their sinful desires. And still progressing down the pipeline, next He gives them over to their degrading lusts. See, it goes from bad to worse. Last, “Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.” Not just the men, but the women too.

It is one thing for individuals to be sinful. But when an entire nation is sinful it seems to me to be the end of the line. How is the entire nation being sinful, you may wonder? Because the Navy is a part of the US Government. The US government being the Navy chose, promoted, and sanctioned “their women exchanging natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.” The Navy didn’t just allow this, it didn’t happen accidentally, they actively chose this and worse, they did so knowing that the kiss is emblematic of the cementing of family relations after separation in military duty upon return to port.

An Army Chaplain said the following in his essay about porn,
“Sex is like a living parable: when we engage in sex within a different context, we are creating a picture or image that stands in opposition to the one instituted by God. In short, when we engage in sex outside the covenantal relationship of marriage, we present a picture of a torn humanity seeking to replace closeness with God with the creativity of his own mind. This is why the language of Romans 1:24-26 is so shocking in the Greek: Paul is essentially saying that homosexuality is, itself, a judgment from God to depict in physical terms the spiritual counterfeit of mankind’s idolatry. But unnatural heterosexual relationships are just as vile in their depiction of man’s rebellion and defection from a right Creator/creature relationship with God.”
(source Ben, Chaplain, US Army Bowie, MD Potomac Presbytery, PCA)

When ‘even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones’, we are surely a nation under judgment.
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/kiss-heard-round-world-lesbians-chosen.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in good preachers

Resources for the meat-eating Christian (Updated)

Posted on by elizabethprata

Update to include one more preacher I’d forgotten to mention.

Regular readers of this blog know that I quote and refer to pastor-teacher Dr. John MacArthur quite a bit. That is for several reasons. First, he preaches the Word and the word alone, in true expository style. That means he goes verse by verse, explaining the verse in historical and cultural context all the while keeping Jesus as the central focus. He has never succumbed to fads or gimmicks or promoting anything else from his pulpit besides Christ and Him crucified. Secondly, he has been doing this steadily from the same church for 42 years. Third, his website has a wealth of material on it, including sermons listed by topic or verse, and its transcriptions so you can read them as well as listen to them. There are devotionals, a blog, and books and resources. It is all doctrinally solid. And in this apostate age, that is quite a testament!

Each generation has its standout preachers. I believe that this century’s standout is John MacArthur. Preaching and teaching at Grace Community Church through the New Testament verse by verse for over four decades is an accomplishment of submission to the Spirit. But what other good preachers are there? Even if their archives are not as full or available, their sermons can be watched or listened to, and their books can be bought. I also enjoy:

Dr. Steve Lawson of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile Alabama. Dr Lawson preaches meat in a wonderful and clear way. He preaches God-exalting truth in a humble but truthful way. In a recent interview, Dr Lawson answered the question as to what he believes is the most foundational doctrine of the church, “I believe that the most foundational truth for the church today, as well as in any generation, is the sovereignty and holiness of God. As one’s view of God goes, so goes the entire church. A high view of God inevitably leads to high and holy living. But a low view of God leads unmistakably to low living. A towering view of God in which He is seen in His unrivaled sovereignty and absolute holiness has the most dramatic and profound effect upon the church. Such a vision of God inspires transcendent worship, induces godly living, empowers tireless service, deepens spiritual fellowship, imparts supernatural joy, breathes abundant life, and motivates global outreach. The church will never rise any higher than her lofty view of God.”

As a matter of fact, all the men (and one woman) I mention here have the highest view of God as holy and sovereign. It seems that it would be a given that good preachers and teachers would have this view, but in today’s world it is not so.

Don Green is part of the MacArthur church, leading a small group (of 600, lol!). Mr Green “was a litigation attorney in Chicago for several years before leaving his law practice to attend The Master’s Seminary, where he completed his M.Div. and Th.M. degrees with highest honors. He is an ordained elder at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, Don pastors GraceLife, a group of more than 600 adults. He has published several articles on biblical themes. He is also the Managing Director of Grace to You, where he oversees the daily operations of John MacArthur’s international media and radio ministry. Don and his wife, Nancy, have six children.”

Justin Peters is known for his discernment ministries, an important calling in this day and age. As with all good pastors, he is humble, clear, and Jesus-centered. The link on his name brings you to his website so you can read about him and his positionsbut you can also watch him on Youtube. This link brings you to part one of his seminar titled “A Call to Discernment“.

Phil Johnson is another Grace Community church pastor I listen to. Phil is the Executive Director of Grace to You. “He has been closely associated with John MacArthur since 1981 and edits most of John’s major books. But he may be best known for several popular Web sites he maintains, including The Spurgeon Archive and The Hall of Church History. Phil has a bachelor’s degree in theology from Moody Bible Institute (class of 1975) and was an editor at Moody Press before coming to Grace Community Church. He is an elder at Grace Community Church and pastors the GraceLife fellowship group. Phil and his wife, Darlene, have three adult sons, Jeremiah, Jedidiah, and Jonathan.” Where MacArthur is scholarly and Green is fatherly, Johnson is fiery.

If you really want some fire, listen to Paul Washer. Washer does not thunder, rather, he has a soft demeanor and a gentle voice, but his words are devastating. His website is called HeartCry Missionary Society and that is Washer’s primary focus: bringing the Gospel to the lost all around the world. He is also a Southern Baptist itinerant preacher. His sermons often focus on the character of Christ and how a person is saved from hell. He also preaches against decisional regeneration and corporate approaches to church growth.

Steve Hadley is younger (lol, 40ish) and a bit more casual than the others I’d mentioned. In other words, he sits down to preach and he doesn’t wear a suit. He also laughs and jokes a bit while he preaches and is really funny. But his sermons are not a comedy routine and the value he places on God’s sovereignty is HIGH. He preaches verse by verse with occasional meanderings into a topical sermon such as at Christmas time or when prophecy seems to warrant. He is solid on doctrine. I recommend him highly for those who want a slightly hipster approach (and I mean slightly) but is not oft-putting as some of the elder preachers are to the younger.

So I recommend the above four pastor/teachers, a missionary preacher and a discernment preacher, a nice variety. In addition, the following below can be relied upon for good handling of the Word:

I like Kay Arthur’s biblical-educational tv program “Precepts for Life” and I watch it when I am home at that time. I enjoy her books too. David Wilkerson, Dr David Jeremiah and Adrian Rogers are all good as well. (Yes I know that Wilkerson and Rogers have passed on but their archives are still alive). They tend to preach topically, which is OK. Charles Spurgeon of course, has a wealth of materials still archived online to read and enjoy.

It is up to every believer to seek truth that is unadulterated. We are all responsible for the decisions we make and the actions we take in His name, as well as what we allow in His name. It behooves us to know, then, what He has said and what He expects. Read the Word yourself, and the more you read it yourself the more you will find that when a good bible preaching sermon comes along the Spirit will have prepared your heart for deeper understandings. And vice versa- when you listen to a sermon and then go to read the Word there will be connections made in your heart. That is because the Holy Spirit is the common thread. The Spirit reveals all things Jesus came to preach and all things the Creator has made.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/resources-for-meat-eating-christian.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in bible jesus, false christs, kim jong-il, supernatural signs

North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-Il’s birth and death accompanied by divine signs, allegedly

Posted on by elizabethprata

North Korea has a population of roughly 24 million people, though exact numbers are hard to come by since the country is so closed to the outside. Because of this extreme insularity, NK is seen as one of the world’s most linguistically and ethnically homogeneous places in the world.

“North Korea is the world’s most militarized nation, having the fourth largest army in the world, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. It is a nuclear-weapons state and has an active space program.” (source)

As for its military, I believe it will be prophetically important. Bible.org explains of the prophecy of the Kings of the East and the huge army seen by John,

“The Great Army From The Orient“
“Two important passages in Revelation, namely, 9:13-21 and 16:12-16 contribute to the conclusion that one of the large armies employed in the final world conflict will be a military force of great power which comes from the Orient. The first intimation of this is found in Revelation 9 where it is recorded that John:

‘heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates, And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them’ (verses 13-16).

“The passage goes on to describe the character of this army and the conclusion that one-third of the men were killed in the resulting military struggle.”

Because of this insularity, the people are more susceptible to accepting what they are told, having nothing to balance what they are told against. The recently deceased “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-Il had developed a cult of personality around himself that extends beyond the grave, right up to heaven.

Here are some strange facts that Jong-Il cultivated and in the end, he probably believed them himself. He approved, or even made up, the following names and titles for himself to be used with impunity:

  • Great Leader
  • Father of the People
  • Superior Person
  • Ever-Victorious, Iron-Willed Commander
  • Great Man, Who Descended From Heaven
  • Glorious General, Who Descended From Heaven
  • Savior

“The same reports claim his birth were heralded by a swallow and caused winter to change to spring, a star to illuminate the sky and rainbows to spontaneously appear.”

And get this one, “It is reported that Kim’s official biography on the North Korean state web site, which has since been taken down, claimed that Kim did not defecate. Enough said.”

Jong-Il’s death, not surprisingly, has its own spate of supernatural events associated with the event. BBC reports today, “Strange natural phenomena have been witnessed in North Korea since the death of the country’s leader Kim Jong-il, the state news agency KCNA reports. Ice cracked on a famous lake “so loud, it seemed to shake the Heavens and the Earth”, and a mysterious glow was seen on a revered mountain top, KCNA said. … “Even nature is mourning, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday. A snowstorm hit as Mr Kim died and ice on the volcanic Chon lake near his reported birthplace at Mount Paektu cracked, it said. Following the storm’s sudden end at dawn on Tuesday, a message carved in rock – “Mount Paektu, holy mountain of revolution. Kim Jong-il” – glowed brightly, it said. It remained there until sunset. On the same say, a Manchurian crane also apparently adopted a posture of grief at a statue of the late leader’s father in the northern city of Hamhung.”

Wow, the ‘rocks and stones would cry out’. (Luke 19:40). And creation itself groans for the loss of the Dear Leader. (Romans 8:22).

NOT.

How do you suppose the ONLY superior Person, Savior and Ever Victorious One feels about a mere man calling himself these things that identify only Jesus the Most High?

We are told in Matthew 24:24 that false christs will come, even with signs that would deceive the elect if that were possible. We are told repeatedly about the falsity that will accompany the last days. We see from the reaction of the North Koreans how easy it is to deceive people. Not all the reactions of crying and mourning are real, but much of it is.

At the National Journal, Michael Hirsh wrote of Jong-Il and was excerpted by HotAir:
“There is, perhaps, no totalitarianism in the world that is as all-embracing as North Korea’s. Something like it hasn’t existed since Stalin died (and with him a personality cult very much like that which surrounds the Kims). I have spent time in other police states, but even in some of the most vicious of them, an undercurrent of dissent ran like a subterranean stream through the back rooms of restaurants, bars and private meeting rooms. Even under Saddam Hussein, Iraqi cab drivers would glance around when pressed and spit out their hatred of the dictator. Dissidents in Myanmar, during the worst of the crackdown, would whisper their fealty to democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In Vietnam, Saigon residents would raise their eyebrows and snort at the central planners in the North. In China, after Mao’s death, there was a reappraisal of his policies, and the Communist Party ultimately allowed that some elements of “Mao Zedong Thought,” like the disastrous Great Leap Forward of the ’50s or the Cultural Revolution of the ’60s, had not been successful. … “One foreign resident of Pyongyang, when asked on our trip in 2000 if he had ever seen any evidence of dissent–even over drinks with North Korean associates–responded: “Never. Nothing.” North Korea’s regime has come the closest of any society to what Orwell called, in 1984, the literal inability to conceive an unorthodox thought.”

HotAir goes on to ask the same thing we are all wondering, I’m sure:

“Why do North Koreans behave this way when many Libyans were ecstatic to see Qaddafi go? Is it a simple matter of NK’s military being vastly more competent and therefore intimidating to the population than Libya’s was? Is it that NK, as a society, is even more cloistered than Libya, leaving North Koreans with no international yardstick to measure their own oppression by? Is it the absence of any strong tribal divisions in North Korea of the sort in Libya that gave people an identity beyond Qaddafi’s brand of nationalism? What’s the magic sinister ingredient?”

The magic sinister ingredient is satan. He is the lord of anyone on this earth who refuses or rejects the True Lord. (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; John 12:31). The magic sinister ingredient is not that the different peoples and tribes react differently to news of their Leader’s death but the fact that they even for a moment first believed their leader’s good intentions. The magic sinister ingredient is that Saddam, Kim Jong-il, Gaddafi, Chairman Mao are all dead now, and Jesus isn’t.

All this shows us just how easily people can be duped. Kim Jong-Il duped himself into thinking he was a superior person, descended from heaven and endowed with powers. The millions inside that insular nation were duped into believing these things of Kim Jong Il when creation itself testifies that only One made the world and only One’s coming should accompanied by signs and wonders. Because the world disbelieves this, Jesus will allow signs and wonders to be performed by the antichrist, and then they will believe. “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). “and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11).

And by then, the signs and wonders won’t be made-up as Kim Jong-Il’s were, they will be real enough to the people, and if they can be deceived, they will be.

Please listen to the Word that tells us only One is God and only One came to save us and only One draws us toward that salvation. The Triune God loves His people. Please love the truth that Jesus lived as sinless man, died for our sins and rose again to reign at the right hand of the Father. He is willing to forgive sins and to welcome you to heaven. Kim Jong-Il is dead now. Jesus is alive.

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/north-koreas-dictator-kim-jong-ils.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in bible jesus, open door

Jesus opens the door and He shuts the door

Posted on by elizabethprata

Do you take the Lord’s power and grace for granted? Have you diminished His Holiness in your mind? Many people in this day and age have. How do I know? They think the Lord will somehow relent, and allow everyone into heaven after all. Or that His mercy is go great and so wide that they will be forgiven, even if they do not know Jesus. Jesus will not relent. His decision is final, and His decrees are sure. If you do not know Jesus on the day you die, you will be cast into hell. If you do not know Jesus on His day of wrath, you will die and be cast into hell.

Even saying such a thing in this day and age seems like a revolutionary act. People chide us Christians who flatly declare the truth from the Word, that He will not relent. “Our God is a loving God,” they exclaim. “He would never do that!” Well,  Remember rebellious Korah who was swallowed by the earth? Remember Uzzah who touched the ark? Remember Ananias and Sapphira, who blasphemed the Spirit by lying to the Apostle? Jesus will not relent, because He is the door.

“I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” (John 10:9).

He is the only One who opens the door.

“I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” (Revelation 3:8).

He is the One who shuts the door.

“And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. (Genesis 7:16).

When the ark was filled He shut the door and the rest of the world was judged. And so it will be again, for the unaware.

“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ “But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’ (Matthew 25:10-12)

He is the King of the Kingdom and it is He who says who enters and who doesn’t. He is the Door. Right now the door is open to all who would repent. It will be shut at the rapture. Not that anyone cannot be saved after the rapture, but with the door shut, you are in the cold, hard world and exposed to believing the lie.

“and with all the deceit of unrighteousness in those who perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie,” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11)

Enter now while the door is open. Repent and believe the truth: that Jesus is resurrected Lord and He is the only way to enter the Kingdom. He speaks the truth, and when He says that judgment is coming, believe it. The time will come when the door will be shut. As it says in Isaiah 26:20- “Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation is past.”

While the door was open, they did not listen and believe in Noah’s day:

Sinners before the Flood, 1594 Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem
After the Flood , Circa 1588 Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem

This is what Judgment looks like:

Deluge, The COMERRE, Léon François Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes  

This is what grace looks like:

Noah’s flood KAULBACH, Wilhelm von (1805-1874)

How so? you ask. How is this grace? The serpents are writhing, the people are dying! Well, don’t focus on the serpents and the people. It is one way we diminish His holiness and His mercy. Focus on Him and His protected righteous and the fact that His promises of salvation are sure. The angels ministering, the ark itself was a lengthy warning to the same people who are now crying for the door to be opened. “Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation is past.”

Please answer His call, and repent!

“Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.'” (Luke 13:25)

“Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5:9)
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/jesus-opens-door-and-he-shuts-door.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in christianity, onward christian soldiers

Why your church is a military academy

Posted on by elizabethprata

The local church in America is a lot of things to a lot of people these days. For some, it is the main entertainment center of their life. They go there on Sunday and have films or comedy routines or dances presented to them, or even a bed and a sermon on sex, instead of expositional sermons. Youths lounge sulkily in darkened ministry rooms designed to look like city lofts, complete with cool couch, and a stage with a drum set in the middle so they can get jacked up for Jesus. The building is mostly a place for recreational and social activities, and entertainment.

For others, the church is a country club. It is a place where like-looking people from the same socio-economic strata congregate and have coffee and laugh and make plans to go the Cracker Barrel after the appropriately short sermonette their avuncular (until crossed) pastor gives them. No feathers are ever ruffled and all people are friends, at least for another week. And even if they aren’t, they’re family and they have been going there for years anyway. It is mostly a place for recreational and social activities, and entertainment.

For me, the church is a military academy. “The purpose of the United States Military Academy is “to provide the Nation with leaders of character who serve the common defense.” In order to achieve its purpose, the mission of the United States Military Academy is “To educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country; professional growth throughout a career as an officer in the United States Army; and a lifetime of selfless service to the nation.”

All we need to do is change a few words to replicate the duty of the Christian in service to our High Commander: Jesus, in not the nation but the Body of Christ. Yes, it is for a lifetime. We learn duty and honor to Him, we grow as Christians in His Spirit. Our churches are military training academies and the enemy is satan.

In other words, it is a training ground to go out and participate in war. The teachers are often the seasoned vets, familiar with the enemy and familiar with the training manuals. The cadets come in and learn from them, as well as make bonds with their fellow cadets. Other who may be younger than a seasoned vet teach some of the more basic classes. It isn’t an army base where it is insular and protected by barbed wire. It is a Military Academy, where we go in for educational purposes, get trained, and go out. Only to come back and get more training so we can better engage the enemy, depending on where the Commander decides to deploy us. And so on. Week after week we go in, get trained and refreshed, learn a bit more about the enemy, and then go out and wage battle.

However, I am sure there are sentries stationed around even an academy. They are needed. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (1 Peter 5:8) We need to remain vigilant and aware of our common enemy’s whereabouts and his tactics at all times, even when we are inside the academy.

The warlike aspect of our faith is increasingly ignored in favor of the comforts of what we are told Christianity can bring us. Every day is a Friday. We can get comfortable seats at the movies and preferred parking places at the mall if we just believe. We sow a seed and reap 100 fold. Ugh.

The first century Christians didn’t have a church down the road to skip to because their flat screen is bigger. The medieval Christians didn’t even have access to the bible and the only church was the false Catholic church. The Third World countries that oppress Christians and persecute them have churches, but if you congregate there you may get burned alive inside. The Tribulation saints won’t have churches to rely on, but only basements and nooks and alleys and mostly will be on the run from the hounds of antichrist coming to behead them. We have the glorious opportunity now, here in this age and in this nation, this generation, to attend a church of our choosing and learn the Word and to rejoice in Him with brothers of the faith, to extend the kingdom and to glorify Jesus! How DARE WE toss aside our churches! How DARE WE let them go to the hounds of hell simply because we cannot be bothered! A nation with no military academy loses the war.

We ARE in a war, every minute. “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:” (1 Timothy 1:18-19).

Our walk is called a good fight of faith. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)

The church is supposed to train us and equip us, the same as a military academy. “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11-12)

The pastor is supposed to be training the cadets but it is not a duty resting solely on the pastor. Any church that abdicates its duty and whose individuals in the congregation rely on the pastor only for education is in for a wild authoritarian ride! We learn from our elders and our teachers, and from each other too. (Proverbs 27:17). No one is higher than another. “But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers.” (Matthew 23:8).

Puritan John Owen wrote, “The first and principal duty of a pastor is to feed the flock by diligent preaching of the word. It is a promise relating to the new testament, that God would give unto his church “pastors according to his own heart, which should feed them with knowledge and understanding” (Jer. 3:15). This is by teaching or preaching the word, and no otherwise.” That means no beds, no movies, no man-written books, no comedy routines, no interpretive dance, just the training manual, thank you: the bible. Can you imagine the reaction at West Point if the cadets attended a class on “Enemy Tactics 101” and the teacher said they will learn how to identify the enemy through watching an interpretive dance? The teacher would be laughed out of the classroom.

The point is to learn when you get there, not recreate or entertain. You don’t go to there passively occupy space without ever employing your brain. What if you went in to the Academy week after week and all the teacher ever did was give you the syllabus? Where’s the substance? The content? The meat? You would demand your tuition back! What if you went in there and all the teacher ever did was show recruiting films? You’re already recruited. Soon you get to asking, “Now what? I don’t know enough about the enemy. I don’t know what I am supposed to be doing to alert others to the danger, and I don’t know enough to know how to resist the enemy… and I’ve been coming to this Academy for 10 years!” (1 Corinthians 3:2; Hebrews 5:12). The church is for training, equipping, sharpening. When we go to church we are not recreating, we are not country clubbing. We are soldiers!

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2 Timothy 2:3).

You’re a soldier, soldier! Quit whining about the pews! Quit griping about the air conditioning! Stop wallowing in your laziness! Snap out of it! You’re in Jesus’s army now! “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:” (Ephesians 6:11-17)


http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/why-your-church-is-military-academy.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in theology

Rare Kelvin-Helmholz clouds in Alabama

Posted on by elizabethprata

Yahoo reports, “For a morning, the sky looked like a surfer’s dream: A series of huge breaking waves lined the horizon in Birmingham, Ala., on Friday (Dec. 16), their crests surging forward in slow motion. Amazed Alabamans took photos of the clouds and sent them to their local weather station, wondering, “What are these tsunamis in the sky?” Experts say the clouds were pristine examples of “Kelvin-Helmholtz waves.” Whether seen in the sky or in the ocean, this type of turbulence always forms when a fast-moving layer of fluid slides on top of a slower, thicker layer, dragging its surface.”

NOAA defines the wave-clouds as “Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds are a result of wind shear in a stable atmosphere. The wind speed at the top of the cloud layer is faster than that at the bottom, which rolls the cloud into wave shapes. These clouds form in stable layers of the atmosphere, such as near a temperature inversion. While Kelvin-Helmholtz waves are not uncommon in the atmosphere, it is relatively rare to get the “breaking wave” cloud shapes shown here.”

As a personal note, in all the Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds I viewed online, including the particular ones NOAA says are very rare, the photo of the ones in Alabama blows them all away. They are stunning. I believe the perfection of their formation is as rare as the hole punch cloud. Or this hole punch cloud. Or the tubular cloud.

Anyway, signs in the sky…
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/rare-kelvin-helmholz-clouds-in-alabama.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in bible jesus, hell, punishment

Back to Basics: What is hell?

Posted on by elizabethprata

This “Back to Basics” series explores some of the more basic doctrines of the Bible Believing faith of Christianity. After the rapture there will be millions of new believers who must come to grips, and quickly, with the basic tenets of our faith. This series is a primer. Other entries in the series are

Hello, Holy Spirit!
What does it mean to be born again?
What’s the Gospel?
What is prayer?

Hell is real. The current American culture doesn’t want to believe that hell is real. Liberal Christians all around the world don’t believe it is real either. Rob Bell recently wrote a book called “Love Wins” in which he says “A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.”

Of course, Mr Bell is completely wrong, at least about the doctrine of hell being a misguided teaching. Jesus taught it. Was Jesus misguided? Certainly not.

Of course, atheists deny hell, but they deny heaven, too. As the famous and recently deceased Mr Christopher Hitchens has said in his book The Portable Atheist, “The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell.” Unfortunately he, like all atheists, find out too late that God is very real, and so is hell. He is right, death is certain, but after that, the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27).

Some believe that only the fallen angels go there, not us human sinners. After all, God did make hell for the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41)

The Catholics believe in a mid-hell or waystation hell called purgatory. They think that you can buy your way out (indulgences) or be prayed out after your final purification is accomplished, because Jesus’ sacrifice was not enough, obviously. Annihilationists believe that your body is just destroyed after death.

Even for bible believers, there are a few different terms for hell that are confusing. There’s  Sheol, Hades, Hell, the lake of fire, Paradise, and Abraham’s bosom? And don’t forget Gehenna and Tartarus.

Paradise means heaven. (2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7). It could also mean the heaven that was inside the earth on the other side of Hades with the great gulf between them, known to both Lazarus and the rich man. (Luke 16:23-31)

Abraham’s bosom is a Jewish/Hebrew term for heaven, the place where faithful Israelites went after death. It is typically thought to have been inside the earth and when Jesus ascended to heaven, took all the ones in Abraham’s bosom with Him. He did descend to hell (1 Peter 3:19) after His death to preach to the spirits jailed there, which could be a reference to the lowest dungeons of hell where the sinning angels are being kept. This lowest depth of hell is mentioned in 2 Peter 2:4, “For God did not spare angels when they had sinned, but hurling them down to Tartarus consigned them to caves of darkness, keeping them in readiness for judgement.”

Gehenna is another New Testament word for hell. Sheol is a Hebrew word for the grave.

The Lake of Fire is the final place where all people after the final judgment at the end of time receive their new bodies and are thrown into the Lake, along with death, the devil and his angels, and hades itself. (Revelation 20:14). And there the smoke of their fires go up night and day. (Revelation 14:11).

It is thought that Jesus emptied Abraham’s bosom, or Paradise and took the righteous to heaven with Him when He went up.

With all these names for the place(s) we go to after death and all the confusion about who goes there and why, we can ask, what IS hell? I can answer that. Hell is a place you don’t want to go.

Better than that, hell is a place you don’t have to go!

Hell is a place that is very real. Jesus preached on it more than He preached on heaven. It is an eternal place. Matthew 18:8 speaks of the eternal fire. Matthew 25:46 records Jesus saying that the righteous will go to eternal life and the unrighteous into eternal punishment. There is no escaping the doctrine that hell is forever–

“… the penalty of eternal destruction… (2 Thess. 1:9).
“…the punishment of eternal fire…” (Jude 7).
“… the black darkness has been reserved forever..” (Jude 12-13).
“…and there the smoke of their fires go up night and day…” (Revelation 14:11).
“…everlasting burnings…” (Isaiah 33:14)

Who goes there? Sinners. Now, if you know Romans 3:10 you know that Paul said there is none righteous, no, not one. We are all sinners. So does that mean we all go to hell? In a sense, yes. It is the default condition of every person on this earth who is ever born. It is where we all could go and where we all should go. But it is not where we all have to go.

The glory that is our God is that He made a way for us to escape that eternal fire, that everlasting punishment, that black darkness. He sent Jesus to earth, who came to die as the sacrifice for our sins. His death satisfied the justice required from God to punish sin. His resurrection proves He is God and now He reigns as Savior and Lord. All a person must do is understand this, and repent of our sins. Understand that we sin, we deserve hell, Jesus died to make a way for us to escape it, His sacrifice and resurrection is that Way. He “is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by Me,” He said in John 14:6.

That verse means that no matter how many ways and how many times a person scrambles the scriptures, hell is real. It is the destiny of all people who literally push away the body of Jesus.

In the Luke verse it said that between heaven and hell there is a great gulf fixed and no one passes from one to the other. Therefore the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory is false. The only opportunity people have to choose heaven or hell is in this life. You can’t be prayed out later. The Universalists and Liberal Christians who believe that all paths lead to heaven are wrong. Jesus is the way, no one comes to heaven except through Him. The atheists who think that there will be no accountability to a Holy God for their sins against Him are incorrect. There will be a court and there will be justice: Divine, Holy justice. And then hell after.

It is all in the bible. If you believe the bible that is good. It means you likely believe the Good News, which is that Jesus came to make a way for us to be with Him in heaven instead of hell. If you believe the Good News then act upon it, now, because that means hell is real too.

“The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.” Proverbs 15:24

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/back-to-basics-what-is-hell.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in chinese auction, covet, tenth commandment, white elephant, yankee swap

I don’t like Yankee Swap/Chinese Auction/White Elephant gift games and I’ll tell you why

Posted on by elizabethprata

At Christmas time, there is an old game at parties that adults play with gifts. Up north it’s called a Yankee Swap, sometimes White Elephant, and in the south it’s known as Chinese Auctions.

I was not familiar with these kinds of gift-giving games until two years ago, when I attended my Sunday School class’s annual Christmas party and was told to ‘bring a gift for under the tree.’ After dinner, the game began. Here, Wikipedia describes it:

“At a Chinese auction, though not really an auction at all, each participant contributes wrapped prizes of roughly the same value to a pool of prizes. Participants draw numbers to see who gets to choose a prize from the pool of prizes first. The second person may choose their prize from the remaining prizes in the pool, or may take the prize from the first person who chose. The third may take a prize from the pool, or from the first or second person and so on until all participants have chosen. People choosing prizes are not required to open them, so the prize contents may remain unknown to all but the contributor until all participants have chosen.”

This breaks the Tenth Commandment. The Tenth Commandment is found in Exodus 20:17: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

I can hear people now, saying that I’m ‘too picky’, ‘why not have a little innocent fun at Christmas’, ‘it’s a harmless game’, ‘I take the bible way too seriously’…all those things. But I can’t be too picky when it comes to direct commandments from God. Not only do I owe Him my allegiance because He is God, but because He saved me from eternal punishment, also. I owe him everything. So let’s take a peek underneath all that harmless fun and look at the sin-festival that Chinese Auctions are.

My apprehensions about this game were solidified when I heard a good sermon last week on it. Phil Johnson at Grace Life pulpit expounded on the Tenth Commandment in a sermon called “Why covetousness is no small sin.” (transcript here). It was perfect timing for me to understand what it really means to covet and what other sins grow out of that. ALL other sins grow out of that, as a matter of fact. What was the first sin? Eve coveted that which God said she should not have.

Regarding a Chinese auction we could say “You shall not covet the ornament on your neighbor’s lap”.

The Tenth Commandment “requires full contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbor, and all that is his.” (Phil Johnson). Chinese auctions are the opposite of that.

Chinese auctions are a breeding ground for discontent. Coveting is a desire for something we are not supposed to have and in order to get it, we steal it. Now, not all coveting is evil. “There is a kind of covetousness that is not evil. It’s when we covet that which God Himself esteems worthy of our desires. Desire in and of itself is not wrong; but make sure that you only desire for yourself what God desires for you.”(Johnson).

Does God desire for us to steal our neighbor’s goods from their very lap? Does He desire that we should look with covetousness eyes at $2 trinkets and breed discontent with what we have? Does He desire for us to allow a small root of bitterness that our neighbor took something from us?

We are born with desires, and because we are born sinful, our desires are evil. We can’t tell ourselves NOT to have the desires that we have. We like what we like and we want what we want. Satan knows that. He tempted Jesus in Matthew 4. He had the brazenness to tempt Jesus to covet! Jesus resisted, “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15). So Jesus understands that satan will tempt us, making mincemeat out of us, easily. He’ll bring desires and coveting to our mind that we must resist. With the Holy Spirit, desires can be resisted. Therefore I don’t want to put myself into a situation where it makes it harder for me to resist. It’s hard enough already!

I attended an auction of this sort last week. The auction was excruciating because I’d heard part of the Phil Johnson sermon before I went and I knew that I was going to be sinning. But I didn’t know what to do or how to get out of it without being rude to the people who were gathered there, who are fine, good people I love very much. It will take some prayer and forethought to determine what to do next year when these auctions come up again. But that is the nature of this sin, most of the time you don’t even know you’re coveting when you’re doing it. And compared to murder, it seems like a small sin. But remember, it is the original one. Therefore coveting is no small sin, and one to be avoided.
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/i-dont-like-yankee-swapchinese.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in end of days. prophecy, pope, st. malachy

Pope Benedict’s health failing, St. Malachy’s prophecy comes up again

Posted on by elizabethprata

UPDATE: Pope Benedict resigned today, the first pope to do so in 600 years. Please read this to learn more: “Pope Benedict resigned- will the next pope validate Malachy’s prophecy?“

An interesting article, please click on the headline for more

Pope heads into busy Christmas season tired, weak
“Pope Benedict XVI seems worn out. People who have spent time with him recently say they found him weaker than they’d ever seen him, seemingly too tired to engage with what they were saying. He no longer meets individually with visiting bishops. A few weeks ago he started using a moving platform to spare him the long walk down St. Peter’s Basilica. Benedict turns 85 in the new year, so a slowdown is only natural. Expected. And given his age and continued rigorous work schedule, it’s remarkable he does as much as he does and is in such good health overall: Just this past week he confirmed he would travel to Mexico and Cuba next spring. But a decline has been noted as Benedict prepares for next weekend’s grueling Christmas celebrations, which kick off two weeks of intense public appearances. And that raises questions about the future of the papacy given that Benedict himself has said popes should resign if they can’t do the job.”

Now, this brings up an interesting issue. I am NOT a fan of extra-biblical prophecies. I mean, just look at the hysteria of the Mayan 2012 world-ending prophecy. The bible is the only true standard for testing truth. But there is an interesting prophecy about the Pope that is explained in Jack Kelley’s Q&A section of Grace Thru Faith website. Both Q&A’s are highlighted with a clickable link.

“Only One More Pope?“
Q. The Bible doesn’t say anything about popes so where do we get the idea that this pope is the 2nd to the last one of the End Times?

A. It’s true that the Bible makes no mention of Popes. The view that the current pope is the next to last one comes from a remarkable extra-Biblical prophecy given by an Irish Catholic Bishop named St. Malachy in 1139 AD. He predicted that a total of 112 men would hold the office of Pope from then till the End of the Age and gave cryptic descriptions of each one that have all been reasonably accurate, lending credibility to the prophecy. The last pope, called Peter the Roman, “will feed his flock amid many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city (Rome) will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people.” Pope Benedict is number 111, next to last on St. Malachy’s list, something that caught the public’s attention around the time the Pope was being selected.”

“Verifying Prophecy“
Q. I believe in all the prophesies in the Bible. But what about those extra-biblical predictions like St. Malachy and such? I know in Joel 2:28, God said that there will be people who prophesize. So how do we (Christians) discern which revelation is from God and which isn’t? If I received a vision, how can I be sure that it is from God?

A. Deut. 18:21-22 answers your question. You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD ?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him. Prophecies from the Lord always come true. Modern day prophecies also have to conform to God’s already revealed word, because He can’t change His mind or contradict Himself. The prophecies of St. Malachy concerning Papal succession are interesting and have historical support for their accuracy. For this reason they bear watching.”

Watch, test all things, dispense with the false and hold fast to the good. And with high levels of skepticism and even with one eye shut, holding your nose, read the “The Prophecy of the Popes” by Saint Malachy, of which “The longest and final motto reads in the original Latin:
“In eſecutione extrema S.R.E. ſedebit. Petrus Romanus, qui paſcet oues in multis tribulationibus: quibus tranſactis ciuitas ſepticollis diruetur, & Iudex tremẽdus iudicabit populum ſuum. Finis.”

This is usually translated into English as:
“In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit [i.e., as bishop]. Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations: and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the terrible judge will judge his people. The End.”

It IS pretty interesting that a guy in some tiny Irish town a thousand years ago made a list of popes that ends at exactly a time when true believers see the biblical prophecies already coming together. Malachy could have listed 100 popes, or 150 popes, but he didn’t. The list ends…now. That merits a ‘hmmmm’ from me.

Compelling, but don’t build a doctrine out of it. The currently reported weakness of the Pope and the prospect of installing another one is always interesting because by far the Roman Catholic Church is one of  the largest false religion in the world, with roots that can be directly traced back to the first false religion, Babylon. For that reason alone, the Pope is worth watching, because it is highly likely the Catholic religion will have some role to play when true believers are raptured away. As head of that religion, the Pope will need to send assurances to the billion Catholics left behind. The Pope, whoever he is, will be prominent in the news and on the world stage. There are approximately 1.1 billion Catholics, and 1.5 billion Muslims so the number of false religion adherents left behind will undoubtedly inculcate and perpetuate the Lie. (2 Thess 2:11).

The news article continues about Pope Benedict:

“Fessio recalled a day in the 2010 edition that remains with him: “In the Saturday morning session, the pope looked older and weaker than I had ever seen him before. In fact I remarked to someone that it’s the first time I’ve seen him look like the old man that he is. He was speaking in softer tones than even his normally soft speaking voice. His head was bowed. He was pale. He just looked frail.” But then, after lunch and an apparent rest, Benedict returned for the afternoon session. “It was a complete transformation. He was lively, vigorous, attentive, and with his usual good humor,” Fessio said. Clearly, at his age Benedict has good days and bad, even good half-days and bad.”

As we all know, all people’s days are numbered, and God knows the number of them. Psalm 39:4- “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.”
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/pope-benedicts-health-failing-st.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150