elizabethprata

beth moore, direct revelation, end time, false teachers

Walsch, Young, and Beth Moore: ungodly channelers all (Part 2)

Posted on September 17, 2011December 26, 2022 by elizabethprata

Part 1: Making no distinction between Victorian channeling writers of yore and today’s Christian
Part 2: Making no distinction between Victorian channeling writers of yore and today’s Christian
Part 3: Walsch, Young, and Beth Moore: ungodly channelers all (Part 3)
Conclusion: How do Christian authors end up channeling spirits and producing books from them? Pride

In part 1 of the comparison between the Victorian spiritist’s automatic writing and today’s certain Christian authors receiving ‘Divine’ revelation by invisible force, I had asked “How is receiving a poem through automatic writing after a seance through a spirit guide any different from holing up in a cabin, having a long conversation with God and writing down by invisible force the ‘Christian’ doctrines that are then published to today’s fervent acclaim?”

I laid the historical groundwork to answer this question, with quotes from famous authors who have received written works from the spirit world through automatic writing. Automatic writing is really modern ghostwriting at its most literal form.

I had said that it is easy to look at WB Yeats and note that having received an entire poem (The Second Coming) in a trance while his hand was being used by an invisible force he ascribes to a spirit guide and say “that’s demonic.” I had wondered why people do not look more closely at some of today’s authors who use the exact same methods and come to the same conclusion, “that’s demonic.” Here are three popular Christian-ish authors who have revealed in interviews that they use the same method, although it goes by a different name now. We no longer hold a seance, call up a spirit guide, and allow our hand to be used as an automatic pen. These authors are today’s Christian mystics engaged in receiving divinely inspired writings in toto after a lengthy bouts of contemplative prayer, usually in seclusion, and are yet said to have a special and close relationship with God because they have done this.

Here are the three authors. I use their examples in order from least Christian to most Christian. Neale Donald Walsch, William P. Young, and Beth Moore.

In 1996 Neale Donald Walsch realized his life was a mess. His relationships weren’t working. His health wasn’t good. He got fired from his job. He woke up one night just angry, really frustrated, and wrote down what was on his mind. God answered. He then had successive conversations with God. These chats became nine bestsellers. Walsch denies his books have been channeled into him, but this is how he explained to the NY Times how his books came about:

“In the spring of 1992…an extraordinary phenomenon occurred in my life. God began talking with you. Through me. Let me explain. I was very unhappy during that period, personally, professionally, and emotionally, and my life was feeling like a failure on all levels. As I’d been in the habit for years of writing my thoughts down in letters…I picked up my trusty yellow legal pad and began pouring out my feelings. This time…I decided to write a letter to God. It was a spiteful, passionate letter, full of confusions, contortions, and condemnation. And a pile of angry questions….To my surprise, as I scribbled out the last of my bitter, unanswerable questions and prepared to toss my pen aside, my hand remained poised over the paper, as if held there by some invisible force. Abruptly, the pen began moving on its own. I had no idea what I was about to write….Out came….Do you really want an answer to all these questions, or are you just venting? … Before I knew it, I had begun a conversation. … and I was not writing so much as taking dictation. … Often the answers came faster than I could write, and I found myself scribbling to keep up. When I became confused, or lost the feeling that the words were coming from somewhere else, I put the pen down and walked away from the dialogue until I again felt inspired–sorry, that’s the only word which truly fits–to return to the yellow legal pad and start transcribing again.”

He was taking dictation, physically being used by an entity from the other side to write about God. Sorry Mr Walsch, that’s channeling. It is also called automatic writing. And therefore anything that comes from the session should be looked upon with extreme suspicion and likely should be disregarded out of hand. And yet the series of books, “Conversations With God” was a huge bestseller. Our church folks have no discernment today. Sadly.

In 2008, William P. Young wrote a story for his kids about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that his wife encouraged him to publish. It became the runaway bestseller The Shack.

Though Young is not as specific as Walsch, Moore, Yeats, Kipling or other automatic writers as to the exact mechanism of the automatic writing, he does state that the book was generated by whispers from God, dreams, and written pads of conversations he had with Him. “His book, The Shack was birthed from “conversations” and notes he would occasionally write during his 45 minute commutes to work on a commuter train, or from deep thought. “I had a number of those rather ugly yellow pads full of bits of conversations. Sometimes, I would wake up in the middle of the night in the middle of a conversation and grab a notepad to try and remember,” he says.”

Christian apologist Norman Geisler wrote of The Shack‘s origins by quoting from The Shack‘s afterword, “In the final section of the book titled “The Story behind THE SHACK,” he reveals that the motivation for this story comes from his own struggle to answer many of the difficult questions of life. He claims that his seminary training just did not provide answers to many of his pressing questions. Then one day in 2005, he felt God whisper in his ear that this year was going to be his year of Jubilee and restoration. Out of that experience he felt lead to write The Shack. According to Young, much of the book was formed around personal conversations he had with God, family, and friends (258-259).” Toward the end of writing the book, Mr Young had said that he spent one weekend writing four chapters, and one chapter, came out whole and he never edited it.

Beth Moore is a Christian teacher and writer who is currently very popular. The most visible of the trio (the trio being Walsch of Conversations with God, Young of The Shack, and Moore) her method of producing her written works are remarkably similar to them both, and also to the writers mentioned in the part 1 of this series, such as Kipling and Yeats who were admitted Spiritists engaging in automatic writing.

Beth Moore, from ‘Believing God’ said: “What God began to say to me about five years ago, and I’m telling you it sent me on such a trek with Him, that my head is still whirling over it. He began to say to me, ‘I’m gonna tell you something right now, Beth, and boy you write this one down, and you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it: My Bride is paralyzed by unbelief. My Bride is paralyzed by unbelief.’ And He said, ‘Startin’ with you.’” God says, “and boy you write this one down”????? ”

She states in the Believing God DVD: “You know what He told me not too long ago? I told you when I first began this whole concept, He first started teaching it to me about five years ago, and He said these words to me: ‘Baby, you have not even begun to believe Me. You haven’t even begun!’ You know what He said just a few days ago? ‘Honey, I just want you to know we’re just beginning.’ Oh, glory! That meant I had begun. Hallelujah! But He was telling me, ‘When this ends, we ain’t done with this. Honey, this is what we do for the rest of your life.’ And He said those words to me over and over again: ‘Believe Me. Believe Me. And I hope it’s starting to ring in your ears, over and over again, Believe Me.’”

In her book “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things, in the preface she states,

Now here is the question. Beth Moore says that she holed up in a cabin by herself, and a written work poured out, emerging complete and not by her own hand, so why DON’T say it is not of Godly origin? How is it different when Kipling says “My Daemon was with me in the Jungle Books, Kim, and both Puck books and good care I took to walk delicately, lest he should withdraw. I know that he did not because when those books were finished they said so themselves…” from what Moore says: “When the message of the book was complete, in His estimation, not my own”?? In both cases, disembodied spirits were telling the authors what to write and when to stop!

How is it any different when Yeats says the writing emerged from an invisible force channeled automatically through his hand, and Moore says that she was ‘compelled by God to put ink to paper with a force unparalleled’?? In both cases their physical bodies were used by a disembodied spirit to write things down and in both cases they felt like they could not resist the force!

How is it any different when Catholic Mystic Hildegard of Bingen says “And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places” and Moore saying “Before God tells me a secret, He knows “up front I’m going to tell it! By and large, that’s our “deal.” (Beth Moore, Praying God’s Word, pgs 1-2). Or when Hildegard said she heard a voice say “write what you see and hear” and Moore saying “He began to say to me, ‘I’m gonna tell you something right now, Beth, and boy you write this one down, and you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it…” In both cases, the women were being directed to write what the spirit said, and both were told by a disembodied spirit that they were recipients of secrets extant of the bible but were doctrinally important just the same!

Yet in all the former cases we dismiss the experience from Yeats, Kipling, and Hildegard, easily detecting that they were of demonic origins. Yet we accept Moore’s writings from that same source and by the same method without question. Why? Why is it like this?

“He silences the lips of trusted advisers, and takes away the discernment of elders.” (Job 12:20)

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land–not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.” (Amos 8:11).

“Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will try to get a vision from the prophet; the teaching of the law by the priest will be lost, as will the counsel of the elders.” (Ezekiel 7:26)

Clarke’s Commentary explains– “Then shall they seek a vision – Vision shall perish from the prophet, the law from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. Previously to great national judgments, God restrains the influences of his Spirit. His word is not accompanied with the usual unction; and the wise men of the land, the senators and celebrated statesmen, devise foolish schemes; and thus, in endeavoring to avert it, they hasten on the national ruin. How true is the saying, Quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat. “Those whom God designs to destroy, he first infatuates.”

If you are infatuated with The Shack, stop. If you are infatuated with Beth Moore, quit. I cannot say more strongly that we all need to pray for discernment in these days just prior to national judgment, we need to seek the truth, not automatically generated spirit writings that offer special secrets or additional insight apart from the bible.

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,” (Philippians 1:9)

John MacArthur has written over 150 books. He has preached expositionally from the pulpit at Grace Community Church for 43 years. I would say he is an elder of the faith. In a Q&A session at the conclusion of the Truth Matters Conference he was asked: “What is your perspective that the Holy Spirit leads us by nudging us, or whispering to us or leading through dreams, things like that?”

MacArthur: “Well, I think the Holy Spirit does lead us, but there is no way to perceive that that’s happening. I don’t have a red light that goes on in my head that goes around and around when the Holy Spirit is leading. I don’t know when the Holy Spirit is leading or when I’m following my own impulses or my own desires, or whatever. I have no mechanism to know that. But in retrospect I see it, and I categorize that as the Providences of God. … For example the Friday they brought me a big list of places they want me to speak, and what did I do? Did I go into a trance and say OMMMM or some see if I can induce the Holy Spirit to know what to do? No. I simply looked at the list and thought, I can’t do that one, and I couldn’t do that one, and oh, that one looks doable. You know what would happen, if I am open and want to do God’s will it is amazing how in retrospect that I can look back and say that it was absolutely critical I be there…

“There is no mechanism that we possess that tells us at the moment when the Holy Spirit is leading us in some supernatural way but that in retrospect we can look back and discern by the Providences of God as it unfolded. … I’m not interested in the mystical stuff. I don’t expect the Holy Spirit to give me special impulses or special revelations.”

Interviewer Phil Johnson added, “The mistake a lot of Charismatics make is looking for special revelation when God doesn’t lead us by giving us new special revelation. He leads us by Providence but He is just as active in leading us.”

The mistake that people like Beth Moore and her followers make is that when special revelation is absent, they believe that God is NOT working, that He is NOT leading. So on the one hand we have a preacher of 50 years who says he has no special direct, auditory, or experiential connection to God nor the Holy Spirit that delivers personal direction to him, nor any mechanism that alerts him to when they are working. And when he writes a book he studies, reads, writes, edits, passes it to his circle of editors for revision and goes around again. And on the opposite end of the scale we have Beth Moore breathlessly saying that God “whisked her to Wyoming” where wholly perfect books are delivered through her hand whilst she is having lively conversations in complete sentences with the Spirit.

You choose which is the more likely the truthful Godly experience…and which is not.

automatic writing, beth moore, demonic influence

Making no distinction between Victorian channeling writers of yore and today’s certain Christian authors (Part 1)

Posted on September 17, 2011December 26, 2022 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Remember when New Age channeling was the thing? In the 70s, Shirley MacLaine promoted it. But channeling is really older than that, it not so ‘new’. At the turn of the last century, many British luminaries participated in the Spiritist/Spiritualist movement of which channeling was a major part. They sat around and had seances all the time. It was wildly popular but despite the many adherents and the wild popularity, Spiritism never really formed into one church or one doctrine because the movement was extremely individualistic. Each person relied on his or her own experiences with the supernatural to discern the qualities of an afterlife and of understanding the supernatural in general.

Sound familiar today? It is. “Christians” of today claim individualistic and personal experiences with the “Divine” and then produce works that are touted as specially insightful because of the personal revelation. Everything old is new again. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccelesiastes 1:9)

When adherents to Spiritism held seances or channeled spirits in private, oftentimes the ‘spirit’ delivered creative products to their brain and hand. This Spiritist activity is called “automatic writing.”

In the heyday of the Victorian Spiritist movement, automatic writing was all the rage. It is “A type of divination where the pen appears to direct the writer instead of the writer directing the pen. With pen in hand, the writer sits back, attempts to clear his mind, and waits for the pen, seemingly, to take on a life of its own. … Spiritualists believe that automatic writing is a form of spirit contact with the living; hence the name “spirit writing”. (source)

Automatic writing is really channeling. It is a method of capturing concepts and thoughts from ‘the other side’ through our hand without conscious thought to interfere or censor the thoughts. Automatic writing in spiritism happens when spirits are claimed to take control of the hand of a person to write messages, letters, and even entire books. Automatic writing can happen in a trance or waking state” (Wiki)

Yeat’s famous poem Second Coming (Slouching Toward Bethlehem) was a product of such a kind of supernatural revelatory delivery system. The poem was delivered in toto to Yeats through a spirit while Yeats was in a trance state. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame was also an adherent to spiritism (Theosophical Society member) and his works were influenced by it as were painter Gauguin’s and many others.

Rudyard Kipling was an automatic writer, too. He has written of his process and product, “My Daemon was with me in the Jungle Books, Kim, and both Puck books and good care I took to walk delicately, lest he should withdraw. I know that he did not because when those books were finished they said so themselves… When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait and obey.” (source)

Spiritism flourished during the Victorian era from 1840 to 1920. But Spiritism was not born in the 1840s nor did it die out in the 1920s. Its roots extend to today and backward to the 1740s and Emanuel Swedenborg. An inventor and philosopher, in 1741 at the age of fifty-three, Swedenborg entered into a spiritual phase in which he eventually began to experience dreams and visions beginning on Easter weekend April 6, 1744. This culminated in a spiritual awakening, whereupon he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. Swedenborg and Franz Mesmer are credited with birthing the modern Spiritist movement. (Yes, Mesmer’s name is where we get the term “mesmerized”, meaning when spiritual forces come grouped together and you get mesmerized.).

The mystical qualities of communing with spirits that results in written or composed works goes back even further than Swedenborg. There are myriad Catholic mystics such as Hildegarde of Bingen, who in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to “write down that which you see and hear.” Hildegarde wrote, “I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. […] And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places.” (source)

We can go back, and back, and back to the beginning but we won’t go back that far, we can stay in the 20th century with the modern day Spiritualists and their seances and mediums, that gave birth to the New Agers of pharmaceutical trances and automatic writing which morphed into today’s Christian mystics engaged in receiving divinely inspired writings after a lengthy bouts of contemplative prayer. It is all the same, you see. This essay and its companion piece conclusion examines these things, and asks the question:

How is receiving a poem through automatic writing after a seance through a spirit guide any different from holing up in a cabin, having a long conversation with God and writing down by invisible force the ‘Christian’ doctrines that are then published to today’s fervent acclaim?

There is no doubt that automatic writing is thrilling. The Irish National Library says that “automatic writing proved to be a revitalizing force for W.B. Yeats.” It is hard to think up your own stuff. It is easy to let someone/something else plop it into your mind for you.

When we hear of writing that has come from an external, automatic source, such as a seance or a spirit guide, we can comfortably become suspicious because there is the glaring problem of authorship and credibility. Virginia Moore puts the problem of Yeat’s visions and writings gained from automatic writing succinctly: and we can ask this question of all such writers, even (and especially) those who write that way today but claim the writing is from God–

“Invariably students of A Vision ask, Was it really spirit-controlled discourse? Or was it, on Mrs. Yeats’ part, either a garnering of her subconscious, or a telepathic reading of her husband’s mind, neither of which requires extranatural help? Or was it a fabrication on the part of Yeats and/or his wife? Or something else?”

How DOES one discern whether such writings are originating from a subsumed personal will, the subconscious, or a supernatural source either divine or demonic? With the current problem of lack of discernment in the Christian church, these good questions are asked less frequently instead of more frequently. It is easy to point to Victorian Spiritists and mediums holding seances and say that any or all creative products resulting from these sessions have a demonic, not divine, origin. However, we rarely hear of Christians questioning the origin and appropriateness of reading and absorbing as doctrine such writings from today’s pseudo-Christians.

In the next part, I’ll use three examples of popular Christian writers who used the exact same methods as the Victorian Spiritists to produce creative works: they went into seclusion, they contacted or were allowed to be contacted from the spirit world, they were used in automatic writing, and they produced a personal revelation they claim is divine in origin.

bible jesus, end time, false doctrine, friday

Happy Friday! Are you happier than you were on Thursday?

Posted on September 17, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Joel Osteen, leader of Lakewood Church in Houston has written another book. The title is, “Every Day a Friday: How to Be Happier 7 Days a Week.” It stems from research that says people are happier on Friday. Osteen wants to ensure that people can know they could be happy say, on Wednesday too.

I saw the title and I thought it was a spoof book someone else wrote who was making fun of his doctrine light and fresh toothpaste smile. Unfortunately the title nor the book is not a spoof nor a joke.

He was interviewed by ABC News and what follows are excerpts and quotes from what Osteen said during the interview. It is such a shame that he has become the face of Christianity, because what he espouses isn’t Christianity. I hate when that happens. But we were foretold that it would.

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4:3) If Osteen and many others like him is any indication, that time is now.

“They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.” (Isaiah 30:10)

“For many years, people have heard that God’s mad at them — they can’t live up to the standards. But our message is about the goodness of God,…”

I’ve heard Osteen say that before, about the Law. It is a straw man argument. The Law is fulfilled. Of course we cannot live up to the standards. Jesus came to fulfill the Law and release us from ritual and ceremony, from the futility of attempting to maintain external standards that elevate our sin nature to anything more than what it is, craven and debased. But Osteen says that kill-joy old Law, you forget about that and listen to me, and be happy.

Here is another quote:
Osteen said: “I think it goes back to tradition, how we were raised. Jesus talked about everyday life, not just doctrine but how do we live? How do we forgive? How do we keep a good attitude when the economy is down?”

Yeah, that’s why Jesus suffered and died on the cross, to keep us happy when the economy is down.

Osteen continued: “I challenge you to let every day be a Friday. Give yourself permission to be happy every day. Not just on the weekends. Not just when you have a special event. Not just when you’re on vacation. If you have the right mind set, you can be just as happy on Monday as you are on Friday. The Scripture doesn’t say, “Friday is the day the Lord has made.” It says, “This is the day the Lord has made” (Psalm 118:24; emphasis added). This means Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and every other day of the week. You can be happy even when it’s raining, when you have to work late, or when you have to do the dishes.”

Again, how great that our Holy God lived and died on earth so we can be happy doing the dishes.

“It’s part of making the Church relevant to the modern world, he said. “I think in some other countries that’s why the church has dried up. They are having church like they had 50 years ago, and you know, the message doesn’t change, but the times change. The music, the production, the lights: I believe if Jesus were here today he would have good production. He would have the best of things.”

Yeah, that Word of God is sooo outdated, and worship in a creaky old church is so last century.

Well, enough with the sarcasm, deserved as it is. It’s terrible to see the reduction of a sterling word from Our Holy God to watered down pabulum such as Osteen utters. Forget what I say. What does the bible say?

“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.” (1 Timothy 6:20)

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” (Ephesians 4:14)

“Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:30)

But wait a minute, you say! Osteen isn’t speaking evil things! He isn’t pernicious nor spreading overtly false doctrine!

No, but his kind of falsity is the most devastating. Can you think of a more devastating moment than this one? “Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23)

First, we see that the people who are pleading ‘Lord, Lord’ are not doing the will of the Father. Second, He says that there will be many like that, people who thought they were doing the will of the Father, who pretended to be doing the will of the Father, but not really doing His will. Many. Third, they were doing things that were religion-ish, like prophesying, doing wonders but all along they were not believing. The father’s will is this: “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” ‘ (John 6:40). They did not believe, and they will not be raised up.

So the ones who will be turned away are the ones who seemed real religious, but they were not really believers. We could not tell, because they said the right things and acted the right way. But the Lord knew. Worse, the Lord says, “‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”

The Lord prefers the hot, zealous, fervent believers, and the the ones who are at least completely true to satan and are cold to the Lord. But the ones in the middle, they are the worst of all. He will vomit them out.

You can see the Lord feels most strongly about the pretenders. That is because they are so poisonous to the body. Their benign misdirection, their subtle watering down of the truth, their apathy, all are deadly contaminants to the church.

Happiness is not on Friday because it is the start of the weekend. Happiness is not doing dishes. Happy is not maintaining equilibrium in a slow economy. Happiness is “if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;” (1 Peter 3:14). Happiness is finding wisdom. (Proverbs 3:13). Happiness is trusting the LORD. (Proverbs 16:20). Happiness is fearing the LORD. (Psalms 128:1-2). I could go on here, but the bible says not to cling to the things of this world, because they cannot make us happy. We can choose happiness every day of the week, but unless we have the Lord as Redeemer in our hearts and believe on His name, we are going to be very UNhappy in hell.
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bible, last trump, pre-tribulation rapture

The ‘Last Trump’ of Corinthians and the 7th trumpet of Revelation are not the same

Posted on September 16, 2011 by elizabethprata

Many people mistake the rapture as occurring during the Tribulation because of two different verses which they misinterpret the meaning of. Here they are:

“Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52)

“The Seventh Trumpet—Christ’s Reign Foreseen: “Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,…” (Rev 11:15)

On the face of it, the two don’t look like they have much to do with each other, do they? And they don’t. But some people insist that they do, merely by virtue of the fact that in the 1 Cor, verse, there is mentioned a ‘last ump’ and in the Rev 11 verse there is mentioned a 7th trumpet of judgment being blown, which is the last trumpet of judgment in that series.

But of course the 7th Trumpet is NOT the Last trump. The only thing they have in common is that they are trumpets. You might as well tie Aaron’s trumpet into it, if you’re going to pick and choose trumpets. There are lots of trumpets in the bible. They:

Regulate the journeys of the children of Israel.
Call assemblies.
Blow over the sacrifices on the feast day.
Blow at all religious processions and ceremonies.
Assemble the people to war.
Sound for a memorial when the people went into battle.
Proclaim kings.
Give alarm in cases of danger.
Announce miracles being performed

The trumpet of Revelation and the trumpet Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians have nothing to do with each other. Here’s one reason why. The Trumpet judgments are spread over Rev 8-9-10-11. Rev 8:6 begins them- “And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.” Then Rev 10:7 tells us that when the last trumpet sounds, the wrath is DONE. Rev 10:7 “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” And Rev 11:15 declares that finish the woes with the 7th trumpet sounding: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.'”

So first of all, the trumpets conclude the wrath, to which we are not appointed.(1 Thessalonians 5:9). It is not a mystery when the wrath begins, either. It begins with the opening of the seal judgments and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are released, at Rev 6:1. As the seals are opened we are told that so begins the wrath, ‘the wrath has come.’ (Rev 6:17). Again, because we are not appointed to wrath, we will not be here for it. And that includes since Rev 6:1 so obviously we won’t be here for the 7th Trumpet judgment which occurs much later.

There is a second reason the 7th trumpet judgment and the ‘Last Trump” of 1 Corinthians 15:52 are not the same. You notice in the above verses, Angels blow the trumpets. The angels all line up. They all have a trumpet. Them they all blow one in turn. “And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets” (Rev 8:2). In the parallel rapture verse of 1 Thessalonians 4:16 it is the trump of God that is blown.

“15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,d that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

The last trump in 1 Thess 4:16 is the Trump of GOD.

“There are trumpets all over the bible. They were used for a variety of purposes. But there is one trumpet that is special. in Exodus 19 verses 16 to 19 a trumpet called the people out of the camp to meet God. It was a trumpet of assembly and it called them out of the camp to meet God. I believe this is a trumpet of assembly. In Zephaniah 1:16 and Zechariah 9:14 a trumpet was used as a signal of the Lord’s coming to rescue His people from wicked oppression. It was a deliverance trumpet. And I believe the trumpet on that day is an assembly trumpet and a deliverance trumpet. I believe when the trumpet blows it is to assemble the saints who have been called out of the graves to life with the living saints and it is also to call them out, to rescue them out from among those who oppress them, men and demons. There are many other trumpets associated with the end times, they tend to be trumpets of judgment, primarily as in Revelation 8 through 11.” (source gty.org)

I hope you can see that the verses are clear that the wrath begins in Rev 6, and we will not be here for it. That the 7th trumpet is stated to conclude the wrath, and again, we will be long gone. And finally, just because it says a trumpet in both verses, does not mean they are the same event. The angels raise trumpets for judgments to begin and God shouts the trumpet for us to assemble.

Take a look at the 40 second clip. I love how the rapture is depicted.

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barroso, end of days. prophecy, end time, eu, european union

Is the euro doomed? Barroso thinks so

Posted on September 15, 2011 by elizabethprata

Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 speaks of the 4 world empires that will dominate the globe in Daniel’s time and forward to the end. In Daniel 2 it’s the statue of Nebuchadnezzar and in Daniel 7 it is a picture of a beast. The four empires are Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman. The Roman empire came and went already but the empire was actually not conquered nor did it really fall hard. It simply petered out, sputtering to a near-halt and was simply merged in with the other tribes that were around in those days, particularly the Visigoths. Because the empire never was conquered its integrity as a culture still exists. It only needs reviving. And be revived it will, and when it does, the antichrist will emerge from it.

“Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” Daniel 7:23-24. The fourth beast is the Roman Empire, as it is the ten toes of the Nebuchadnezzar statue, toes that are iron and clay, mixed, holding together for a little time but then falling apart.

It’s been interesting since 1993 to watch the European Union come together. The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force on 1 November 1993 and grew from three to 12 to 17 and now to 27 member nations. There are not 10 nations as prophesied but the union is morphing into new geo-political organizations at all times so we know the end will be just as the prophecy says. How that occurs is the exciting thing, as we watch the Lord our God bring these pieces together to make come to pass what He has said.

I had written two days ago in that economic piece, “We do not know what the exact catalyst will be for the last Empire to emerge, nor are we told exactly when, but we do know that it will happen. Will Europe collapse all the way, only for the antichrist to arise from the chaotic smoke of the falling empire? Will Europe hang on and the antichrist appear at the right moment to offer a solution so that it will not fall? Either way, the pieces are in the air and it is both exciting and unnerving to watch them play out their final arc in the face of bible truth.” And with the imminent European economic collapse, there are calls for a new super-state.

‘SAVE THE DOOMED EURO BY SETTING UP A NEW SUPER-STATE
“THE EU’s top bureaucrat yesterday claimed that only a fully-fledged super-state can save the euro. Jose Manuel Barroso, the Commission’s President, said the deepening economic crisis in Europe was a “fight for integration”. His outburst was seen by opponents of the march towards a federal Europe as exposing the ultimate ambitions of the Brussels bureaucracy.” The EU top bureaucrat went on to say, “What we need now is a new, unifying impulse, a new federalist moment – let’s not be afraid to use the word,” Mr Barroso told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.”

Make no mistake, a ‘new federalist movement’ is a movement that aims for a global federal system of strengthened and democratized global institutions. A more centralized government that is stronger, and if there is a more centralized government, it means a stronger leader occupying the role of power.

Not everyone was enamored with Barroso’s idea of a stronger and more centralized European government. UK Minister of Parliament Tory MP Douglas Carswell, said: “This is a fight for Europe’s fat cats to cling on to their privileged positions and their taxpayer-funded fiefdom. “It is not in the interests of the millions of people around Europe who have been oppressed by Barroso and his ilk’s currency scam. “The sooner the euro breaks up, the better. People need a currency that works for them. “And who voted for Barroso to lord it over us, anyway? He is an unelected bureaucrat who is overseeing a system that is falling apart.”

I don’t know if the European Union will fall apart completely or if it will turn inward and get stronger. But what is most interesting to me is neither of those things. What is intriguing is that the President of the European Commission Manuel Barroso and the UK Parliament Minister Douglas both said that the EU is falling apart. As always, stay tuned. What will emerge from the ashes will, I am convinced, be the final iteration from which the final empire of the antichrist’s evil hammer will oppress the Tribulation survivors.
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end times, phoenix strange light, prophecy

Strange light in the sky, ABC 15 reports it’s seen in several states

Posted on September 15, 2011 by elizabethprata

A very bright light shone in the night sky over Phoenix, and it was so bright it was seen in neighboring states. Phoenix’s ABC News got tons of calls about the light so the news organization put out queries NASA, Weather Service and the military to try and track down what it was. The reporter states, “No one seems to know what it was…” Reports are coming in from not just Arizona but also Nevada and also Colorado. Here is the news spot–

Remember, the coming tribulation (that has not begun) will be saturated with lying signs and wonders even more spectacular than this. All are perpetrated by satan’s fallen angels at satan’s behest, and and some by satan himself. (2 Thess 2:9, Matthew 24:24, Rev 13:14). UFOs do exist, after all, they are merely ‘unidentified flying objects.” UFO has become synonymous with alien and in a sense alien life does exist also. Angels are created beings, living off planet and visiting ours.

Angels emit a bright light, because they are from glory. Luke 2:9 – “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.” And again in Luke 24:4 – “While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.” Emitting a bright light is part of who angels are. Shining it to trick us is child’s play to a fallen angel.

The Lord soon comes!!
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arab spring, israel, jordan, prophecy

Israel evacuates Jordan Embassy staff

Posted on September 15, 2011 by elizabethprata

From today’s Israel Business News

“A huge demonstration is planned for today outside the embassy in Amman, which Israeli authorities worry could turn violent. Israel has evacuated the staff of its embassy in Amman, Jordan. The evacuation was at the order of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman ahead of the huge demonstration planned for today outside the embassy, which Israeli authorities worry could turn violent, as happened in Cairo last week. The demonstration was organized via Facebook, entitled “Jordan will help liberate Palestine”, and will reportedly draw a crowd of several thousand. Drawing on the lessons of the assault on the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Israel evacuated its diplomatic staff and their families from Amman during the night. They entered Israel by the Allenby Bridge. Jordanian security forces are deployed to guard the embassy. Reinforcements of armed troops are patrolling the area with the clear intent of preventing a repeat of the scenes in Cairo.”

Earlier this week there was a violent demonstration at Cairo’s embassy and Israeli personnel were evacuated. The fact that this is happening in Egypt and Jordan is significant is because Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab nations that have a peace treaty with Israel. In the face of violent demonstrations occurring and the hateful rhetoric being spoken, the peace treaties become merely paper. The bible says that Israel will be completely surrounded by the time of Armageddon. That in the Tribulation she will have NO friends. We see this trajectory occurring now.

More later, with scripture when I come home from work this afternoon…Please pray for Jews round the world, as well as Christians. Their lives are in danger just by virtue of who they are.
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hell, jesus

Heaven and hell

Posted on September 14, 2011 by elizabethprata

Randy Alcorn, author of Heaven, was heard to have made the comment at a conference recently that ‘for the person who eventually goes to hell, his time on earth will be looked back on as the closest he ever got to heaven; and for the person who eventually goes to heaven, earth will have been the nearest he ever got to experiencing hell.’

“When you speak of heaven let your face light up…When you speak of hell — well, then your everyday face will do.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

“The way to Heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill, though it be hard and tiresome, and contrary to the natural bias of our flesh” ~ Jonathan Edwards, circa 1750

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” ~ Revelation 7:16-17. Jesus, circa 90 AD

Come with me and be with Him!
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theology

Strange hum at Windsor Ontario is back with a vengeance

Posted on September 14, 2011 by elizabethprata

During the Tribulation, plenty of weird things will happen. Earthquakes that are greater than ever before, comets, strange things coming upon the earth, demon locusts, Two Witnesses killed in public but then resurrect and fly to heaven…but weird things are happening now, in the time just prior to the end of the Church Age and before the beginning of The Tribulation. Natural disasters are striking with monthly regularity, Europe is collapsing, UFO’s are appearing with boring regularity, and reversing tides tsunami, sinkholes, cracks, rumbles, growls, and generally weird earth noises are emitting from varied places. None of these the scientists can explain.

In the case of the noises, Windsor, Ontario has to be noise ground zero. I had written before and also here that Windsor Ontario has endured a rumbling kind of strange hum for months. Apparently it had subsided a bit lately, giving the residents some relief. However, it is now back, and with a vengeance.

Windsor rumble intensifies
“WINDSOR, Ont. — It seemed as if the mysterious rumblings had subsided, according to Grete MaKenzie, but Sunday night through early Monday the low pitch humming came back with a vengeance.”

“It was the loudest it’s ever been,” she said about the inexplicable rumblings she and thousands of Windsorites have reported hearing in the past eight months. The 61-year-old said the noise woke her at home about 5:30 a.m. Monday in the 3000 block of Sandwich Street. “Last night it was really bad,” said MaKenzie. “We went outside and it was almost like it was vibrating your eardrums.” She said the noise comes and goes, but has been going on far too long. “We need to identify it,” she said. The Ministry of the Environment has ruled out industrial sources as the culprit, but Coun. Al Maghnieh wants to know why. “They’re not giving us answers,” he said. Maghnieh believes the study is not complete. He said he’s received thousands of calls — mostly concentrated in the Windsor West area by Brighton Beach. The ministry ruled out the Windsor Salt mine because the company only blasts once a day in the mid-afternoon. Most residents find the rumblings more prominent between 1-3 a.m. Zug Island, lake freighters and plane traffic from Detroit Metro Airport are also not suspected. The ministry could not be reached Monday for comment. Multiple Facebook groups have started to log times and locations of the mysterious humming, including The Windsor/Essex County Hum which has 523 members. The page was flooded with posts describing Monday’s occurrence as the loudest yet.”

International alarm grows over fate of Europe’s failing economy

Posted on September 14, 2011 by elizabethprata

I had written last night that Greece was said to be defaulting. However, those reports were almost immediately retracted. I wrote that no matter if the default is now or later, it will come, given the numbers. The level of debt Greece is staggering under cannot be borne much longer. Nor can Italy’s, Spain’s, or even the US’s debt be borne by those nations much longer for that matter.

This Jefferies report quoted in Zerohedge lays it out clearly on how and why the European economic failure will be just as bad if not worse than the one the US suffered in 2008. Jefferies is a full-service securities and investment banking firm serving companies and their investors globally, not some pajama blogger or fringe guy who thinks he has a handle of geo-political economics. This is the real deal. In the report, Jefferies lays out the European end game.

“The bottom line is that it looks like a Lehman like event is about to be unleashed on Europe WITHOUT an effective TARP like structure fully in place. Now maybe, just maybe, they can do what the US did and build one on the fly – wiping out a few institutions and then using an expanded EFSF/Eurobond structure to prevent systemic collapse. But politically that is increasingly feeling like a long shot. Rather it looks like we will get 17 TARPs – one for each country. That is going to require a US style socialization of each banking system – with many WAMUs, Wachovias, AIGs and IndyMacs along the way. The road map for Europe is still 2008 in the US, with the end game a country by country socialization of their commercial banks. The fact is that the Germans are NOT going to pay for pan European structure to recap French and Italian banks – even though it is probably a more cost effective solution for both the German banks and taxpayers.”

It is a very good report. Even I understood it, and math and economics is not my strong point.

British economics reporter Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote about Germany’s and Greece’s mutually assured destruction. Pritchard is another guy I like to read. He is sound. He wrote,

Germany and Greece flirt with mutual assured destruction
Bild Zeitung populism has prevailed. Germany is pushing Greece towards a hard default, risking the uncontrollable chain reaction so long feared by markets.
“Whoever thinks that Greece is an easy scapegoat, will find that this eventually turns against them, against the hard core of the eurozone,” said Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos. Greece can, if provoked, pull the pin on the European banking system and inflict huge damage on Germany itself, and Greece has certainly been provoked.”

In the wake of all this economic news from Europe, Moody’s downgraded France’s largest banks today.

“Moody’s Investors Service downgraded two of France’s biggest banks Wednesday, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, citing their exposure to the Greek economy and the fragile state of bank financing markets. It kept a third, BNP Paribas, under review … France brushed off concerns about its biggest banks Wednesday, insisting that it had no plans to nationalize any of them despite a credit rating downgrade linked to their exposure to the limping Greek economy.”

The Polish Finance Minister warned that Europe was about to collapse, though his comments engendered a firestorm under which he ‘clarified’ and partially retracted. He said,

“While speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski warned that Europe was in grave danger of collapsing if the euro zone debt crisis was not resolved rapidly. Europe must be saved at all costs, he added. Anxieties regarding the euro zone debt crisis have been mounting this week. Many judge US Treasury Timothy Geithner’s announcement that he will attend a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Wroclaw this Friday as yet another sign of the seriousness of the situation. “We should not deceive ourselves, if the euro falls apart, then Europe will not survive the shock for long,” said Mr Rostowski during his speech on Wednesday. … Also speaking in the European Parliament on Wednesday, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso also underlined that Europe’s future was at stake. “We are facing the biggest crisis of this generation,” said Mr Barroso. “It’s a struggle for the political future of Europe, for European integration as a whole,” he added.”

It IS a struggle to hold things together when all the forces of evil, history, and prophecy are tearing them asunder. The final empire that reforms out of this crisis and emerges in the last days will fall apart, as well. This is foretold in Daniel 2.

Wayne Blank wrote, “In the Bible study Daniel’s Statue we looked at the curious prophetic symbol found in the book of Daniel. The vision of the statue was given by God to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in a dream. The dream was interpreted by the prophet Daniel. The statue was a composite, made up of different materials to represent the successive human empires that ruled the land of the Bible and beyond. With the starting point of the Babylonian “head of gold” plainly stated to us by Daniel, Bible History and secular history both provide us with the other pieces of the puzzle that fit perfectly: after the Babylonian empire came the Persian empire (the chest and arms of silver); then the Greek empire (belly and thighs of bronze); and finally the Roman empire (the legs of iron). The legs of iron terminated in the feet which were composed of a mixture of iron and baked clay. Daniel provides us with a fascinating description of the “feet.” The iron in the feet is described as a group of different peoples (nations) that despite their differences in language and culture, come together for a short time to fulfill an important stage in God’s plan. The “baked clay” in the feet is the necessary binding agent that holds the pieces of iron together. A common religion, led by a popular, and eventually great miracle-performing leader, is thought to be the baked clay.”

We do not know what the exact catalyst will be for the last Empire to emerge, nor are we told exactly when, but we do know that it will happen. Will Europe collapse all the way, only for the antichrist to arise from the chaotic smoke of the falling empire? Will Europe hang on and the antichrist appear at the right moment to offer a solution so that it will not fall? Either way, the pieces are in the air and it is both exciting and unnerving to watch them play out their final arc in the face of bible truth.
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