bible jesus – Page 3

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 December 22, 2011 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.

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bible jesus, open door

Jesus opens the door and He shuts the door

Posted on December 22, 2011May 9, 2016 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)
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bible jesus, hell, punishment

Back to Basics: What is hell?

Posted on December 19, 2011 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

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bible jesus, prophecy, simeon

Simeon: A man of faith, a man of prophecy

Posted on December 15, 2011 by elizabethprata

During Christmas-time, there are so many wonderful verses to dwell on. Of course, the Annunciation, when Gabriel revealed to Virgin Mary that she was going to be with the Messiah child is a great set of verses to meditate on. Mary’s Magnificat, her prayerful praise to God after hearing the news, brings tears to my eyes. I also love the moment when Mary visited Elizabeth, and John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth’s womb. The still, cold evening when the angels sang over the field of shepherds at the birth of Jesus is also beautiful. There are many. Luke1-2 is a good place to start.

But the moment in the temple after Jesus was born is often overlooked. Joseph and Mary came to the temple to fulfill their duties to God for having been gifted with a son. They were to make a sacrifice. As they entered, the following happened:

“And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,

“Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,
According to Your word;
For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”

“And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed— and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:25-35)

Simeon. There are so many scriptural riches to be plumbed here. First, he was a righteous man. He had great faith, so great, the Lord blessed him. What was the reason for his faith? He was looking for the “consolation of Israel”, in other words, the Messiah. The Old Testament people had faith that the promised Messiah would come. The New Testament people (us) have faith that He has come. It is the same faith, just different timing.

The knowledge that Simeon had laid eyes on Messiah must have been a great moment of grace for Simeon. The promise that had come by the Spirit that Simeon would live to see Him had been fulfilled! What a great testament to the surety of the Lord’s promises! And Simeon showed us by his prayer asking to now be released from this life, having had set eyes on the ‘consolation of Israel’, tells us what a great man of faith that Simeon was. He literally lived for the coming of the Savior!

Notice Simeon’s prayer. It is all about Jesus and God’s plan for His people. Simeon was not looking for the Messiah just for himself. I heard a snippet of a sermon this week about the manger. In it, the person preaching the Lord’s coming talked of the manger and the poverty and humility of our Lord being born there. The person speaking these things then went on to make the scriptures be about us, our “manger moments”, our poverty, our disappointments. Be aware of that kind of preaching. Taking what is supposed to be about Jesus and making it about us. Simeon’s prayer is a wonderful, refreshing, proper prayer- because it is about Jesus in praise and devotion.

Then Simeon gives an oft-overlooked prophecy. He said that the opposition to Jesus would be for a sign. That many would rise and fall, and that Mary’s own heart would be pierced to the soul. And finally, that the thoughts of many would be revealed. That is what LIGHT does, it reveals. Jesus the Light was coming in His ministry to seek and save the lost. One of the things he was seeking and saving the lost from is the gross, outward displays of religiosity, in order to renew the personal relationship God wanted to have with His people and making an inward change toward repentance and growth in Jesus.

Now Simeon’s prophecy about opposition and swords and piercing must have been troubling to Mary and Joseph, to say the least. They knew they were carrying the Messiah, Gabriel told Mary, the other angel told Joseph, Elizabeth confirmed it. Zacharias confirmed it, and now Simeon and then Anna. But swords? Trouble? Piercing? Very stomach-clenching indeed.

Jesus said in Luke 12:49-53 that He comes to divide. That is what truth does, Jesus is so precise His truth can separate spirit from soul. “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12).

Simeon was living in apostate times. The Pharisees and Saducees and Scribes had made God into a terrible thing with their perversion of the Law to their own glory. Romans were oppressing the people, it was difficult to practice their faith in truth because truth was hard to find. But Simeon persevered in devoutness and righteousness. That means Simeon had been declared by God to be righteous, a person doesn’t achieve that for themselves. So Simeon was living in the deepest of the dark times just before Jesus began to preach 30 years later. Yet he had faith.

We are living in dark times now too. Our faith is perverted by false doctrines, we are surrounded by falsity. Many of us look up to see if our Redemption draws nigh. Simeon was a special man to have been told that he would not die before he had seen the coming One. Are we the generation that was told we will not pass away before all these things come to pass? (Mt 24:34). May it be so.

Let Jesus divide out the falsity in you and let His pureness and goodness remain. Let you be on the rise and not on the fall, having your heart presented to Him who judges its thoughts, and be declared righteous because of your faith in the Consolation of Israel – who is also the Consolation of the world!
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bible jesus, miami, prophecy

Disgruntled Municipal workers try to put black magic mojo on City Manager

Posted on December 2, 2011 by elizabethprata

North Miami Beach police employees in hot water over alleged Santeria birdseed plot
Two North Miami Beach police department employees allegedly tried to cast a spell over the city manager’s office.
A note to prospective municipal employees: If you’re looking for a way to help out beleaguered colleagues, casting a spell on your boss is probably not the way to go. Two North Miami Beach employees — one a police officer, the other a department office manager — are in hot water after trying to enlist some supernatural aid in the form of what they believed to be a Santeria practice.”

It all began over budget cuts. The city manager proposed them, the union opposed them, and two employees planned to dispose of him.

Miami is home to a large Cuban and African population, where Santeria flourishes as a mystical, cult voodoo religion that uses dead chickens, animal sacrifice, and black magic. Wikipedia describes Santeria as “Santería is a system of beliefs that merges the Yoruba religion (which was brought to the New World by slaves imported to the Caribbean to work the sugar plantations) with Roman Catholic and Native Indian traditions. These slaves carried with them various religious customs, including a trance for communicating with their ancestors and deities, animal sacrifice and sacred drumming.”

The article goes on, “While Santeria practitioners have argued that their practice constitutes a legitimate religion and bristle at depictions of the practice as black magic or witchcraft, they acknowledge that public displays of their traditions can spook non-believers. And both adherents and experts say that the Afro-Cuban religion, itself an amalgamation of Catholicism and African spiritual traditions, does not count malice — such as casting harmful spells — as one of its principles.”

Suuuuure.

Anyway, the non-union employee involved in the plot was fired and the union employee involved the plot is going through the process of being fired.
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bible jesus, end time, prophecy

Back to basics

Posted on November 24, 2011February 12, 2021 by elizabethprata

I’ve been mulling over some things about apostasy. This is because in the course of my online and real life discernment and encouragement ministry, I see that the essential doctrines of our faith not only are being eroded “out there”, but also “in here”, in Christian places and in people close to me. I am horrified at the depth and breadth of the erosion of what I believed were the obvious givens. I am grieving over the adherence of many people to the destructive heresies.

In my mind, the “obvious givens” start with the the Gospel. That Sovereign God Jesus lived as fully man on earth, was sinless, died on the cross, bore the wrath of God for payment of our sins, was buried and resurrected by the power of God on the third day. That’s the Gospel. One must believe those essentials in order to be saved. But even this basic tenet, the one that distinguishes us from ALL other philosophies, doctrines, faiths and assertions, is being corrupted daily. I had known it was bad in our faith. I had believed the prophesies about how bad it would get. I hadn’t realized how bad the foundations had been eroded, or how many people are affected.

I worry strongly for the mature in the faith who are being drawn away by doctrines of devils, seducing spirits, empty philosophies that are said to come. (1 Timothy 4:1, Colossians 2:8).

I’m worried for the new believers in our faith who watch the way mature believers act and listen to what the mature believers say as they get carried away with seducing spirits and the new ones are being carried away too.

I’m shifting my focus from discernment and encouragement to explain simply what the basics are. There are people out there who believe we can be saved if we dream of Jesus in a jungle or that God is so big He could justly accept people into heaven who have not been born again by faith in ALL the Gospel… Our brethren are at risk from these false and vain philosophies!

So for a while I’m going to go back to the basics. We have to look at these things through an end time lens, well, because we are in the end time. As a matter of fact, the end time deceptions are simply exploding right now, at a pace that faints my heart. I want to do this because when we’re gone, and it seems that we will be soon, the people who are left behind and need to convert will need milk.

Jesus is tantamount. His Word must be adhered to strictly. Jesus finished His Sermon on the Mount, a lengthy discourse on how to live as a follower of Him. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:26-27).

The Word of God is our rock. It will never fall. Let’s begin… This “Back to Basics” series will continue on Saturday and then into next week. I am glad, because I need to re-study the Gospel, the basics, because we can never outgrow the original, transcendent, saving basics of the faith. They’re eternal and encouraging for one and all from the newborn believer to the old in the faith.

bible jesus, salt and light

Salt & Light

Posted on November 19, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16).

We know how to be light. We let our Christian lives shine brightly, the fruits of the Spirit evident (Galatians 5:22-23) as a sweet perfume. (2 Corinthians 2:15). The darker the evil, the brighter the light.

Don’t be a match. Don’t be a lighter. Don’t be a candle. Don’t be a flashlight. Be a Fresnel lens! A fresnel lens is a fixed lens of circular disk of stepped prisms. “A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses. The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design. It is a thinner, lighter lens made with separate sections mounted in a frame. Compared to conventional bulky lenses, the Fresnel lens is much thinner, larger, and flatter, and captures more oblique light from a light source, thus allowing lighthouses to be visible over much greater distances.” (source).

Science makes a better lighthouse lens: “State of the art, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World, the great lighthouse of Alexandria, built around 280 B.C., towered some 450 feet above Egypt’s greatest harbor. At that height, it was the second tallest structure in the world, after another of the seven — the Great Pyramid of Giza. The light within, also state of the art, was an open flame. From that time until the 18th century, the lights that warned ships that they were approaching land improved hardly at all. Some burned coal. Others stuck with wood. Oil lamps backed by mirrors eventually offered a bit more candlepower. Still, every coastline in the world remained littered with the ribs of broken ships whose captains didn’t see the lighthouse until it was too late. Then, in 1822, a frail scientist with a passion for optics made a revolutionary breakthrough. His name was Augustin Jean Fresnel. An example of his greatest creation, a large object that looks like a crystalline beehive, is his lens.”

It was the most important breakthrough in light magnification in 2000 years. (Aside from Jesus Himself, that is!). All prior systems paled by comparison with the Fresnel lens.

So even light has different qualities and magnification levels. I hope you strive to be big and bold and shine with the bright, refracted light of a Fresnel lens!

But salt? How does one be salt? We know that salt is a preservative. With no refrigeration in past days and lands, salt is the medium used which preserved the meat from decay. I read that in the Old Testament times that covenants were sealed with salt, salt was exchanged. Roman soldiers were paid in salt, that is where we get the phrase “not worth your salt” from.

If you really wanted to wreck your neighbor, before we had cars into which we put sugar in the tank, disputing neighbors used to salt the land and no crops would grow there. The area at the southern end of the Dead Sea is salt bed after salt bed, nothing grows there. And the Sea itself is so salty nothing lives in it (except recently discovered bacteria!)

If we put too much salt down, it will kill the thing we are trying to preserve. If we use too little it has no sting, no flavor, and is useless.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13-16).

Being salt is not as appealing as being light. Everybody breathes a sigh of relief when the lights are turned on, especially after a long night hiding in the tornado closet with the power out, or after a lengthy period of darkness of any kind. Light is welcome. Salt is necessary, and often it is unwelcome, because as mentioned earlier, it stings. But this cultural climate of tolerance and love and false humility and meekness is simply a means to lull the Christian that they don’t need to be salt, too. Well, we do. You’ve heard “pouring salt in the wound” and that means causing someone pain by applying stinging salt to where there is a wound. But sometimes we do have to cause pain or upset if we have to rebuke or exhort, saying biblical truths to people who have forgotten them, or who don’t want to hear them. You know what? Pouring salt on a wound does sting but it controls infection.

Christian, don’t abandon your duty to be light AND salt. It is all for His glory.
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bible jesus, eu, one world economy, prophecy

Ann Barnhardt closes brokerage, citing financial investment as Russian roulette, run by godless, criminal political cronyism

Posted on November 18, 2011 by elizabethprata

Glenn Beck’s The Blaze website as well as the guys from Zerohedge are reporting on the first casualty of the MF Global bankruptcy, which is also part of an accelerating momentum toward total economic collapse.

MF Global was one of the ten biggest bankruptcies ever, according to the Wall Street Journal last week when the news came out. The effect was that it became a purgatory for MF Global Customers, and about 33,000 Account-Holders couldn’t get to their cash. ‘My Entire Business Has Come to a Halt’ said one, and this is true for thousands of the little people. Even the big people were affected. Gerald Celente of Trends Research said that his account was emptied and all his positions on gold were closed. The ultimate effect was on us all, as all big bankruptcies are wont to be.

Today a broker closed her business and sent a letter to her customers explaining why. She is Ann Barnhardt, of Barnhardt Capital Management, Inc. and her letter is making huge waves. Rush read it on today’s program, The Blaze posted it, and Zerohedge published it too. Ms. Barnhardt is commercial hedge broker specializing in cattle and grain, representing Farmers, ranchers, etc:

“The Entire System Has Been Utterly Destroyed By The MF Global Collapse” – Presenting The First MF Global Casualty
“Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management,”

“It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.”

“The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.”

“Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette.”

“I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses. I now suspect that the reason the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not immediately step in to backstop the MFG implosion was because they knew and know that if they backstopped MFG, they would then be expected to backstop all of the other firms in the system when the failures began to cascade – and there simply isn’t that much money in the entire system. In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm.”

“And so, to the very unpleasant crux of the matter. The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity. The system is no longer functioning with integrity and is suicidally risk-laden. The rule of law is non-existent, instead replaced with godless, criminal political cronyism.”

Damascus will be destroyed: A prophecy getting closer to fulfillment with each day

Posted on November 15, 2011 by elizabethprata

The Arab Spring finally burst into full bloom for Syria in April 2011, in Clock Tower Square. Protesters were fired upon with live ammunition, leaving about 50 people dead. The protests never stopped, and have turned into a full blown revolution against President Bashar al-Assad. He brutally squashes any uprisings with bloody crackdowns, yet they continued. The death toll rose throughout the spring and summer. Ally Turkey, alarmed at hosting a growing influx of refugees across the border, tried to bring diplomatic pressure to bear on Assad, to no avail. The UN sent an assessment team to the country in August and also Obama said Assad must go in that same month. Still Syria ignored the world’s consternation. In September the bloodshed showed no signs of abating, and in early October a resolution condemning Syria’s response to the uprising was presented to the UN Security Council. It was vetoed by China and Russia. Finally in early November, the Arab League, of which Syria is a member, denounced Assad’s handling of the uprising and suspended Syria’s membership in the Muslim organization.

Finally even the Arab League’s brotherhood had had enough. After Syria defied the US, the UN, and fellow allies, and the Arab Brotherhood called Syria on the carpet. The Arab League knows that if Syria keeps this up, the West WILL militarily intervene, likely using NATO, and the Arab brothers do not want that. They are more than aggravated with Assad. The kicked Syria out of the Arab League.

Arab League suspension of Syria brings military intervention closer
Syria brutal regime at tipping point

So, stunded by even his brothers’ defection from his camp, Assad said he had a change of heart. Unfortunately that change of heart didn’t stick because the next day, we awoke to news that an additional 70 people had been killed in the protests. And this time, Syria hopes they will have sheltering wing under which to take refuge: Russia.

“The latest carnage included 12 suspected army deserters as mass demonstrations spread throughout the country, testing how much more blood Assad can shed. He is in a do-or-die battle, vowing not to be the next Qaddafi or Mubarak but crowding himself into a tight corner as the Arab League turns against him by suspending Damascus from the organization … Syrian officials are in Moscow to try to shore up support from Moscow after Jordan’s King Abdullah said Monday, “If I were in his [Assad’s] shoes, I would step down.” He later denied that he was calling for Assad to quit.”

Russia plays prominently in the last days prophecies, allying with Iran and Turkey to attack Israel in the prophesied battle of Gog-Magog that Ezekiel 38-39 depicts. Syria also plays a prominent role in unfulfilled prophecy. Isaiah 17:1 says that, “The burden against Damascus.“ Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, And it will be a ruinous heap.”

Notice the language in that prophecy. It is passive tense. It does not say that Israel wipes out the city. It does not say which enemy destroys the city. It does not say that God destroys the city. We do not know who or how the city ceases. We don’t know how it will happen or from whom. Only that it will. We only know the result. In other prophecies God says who will do what, and how. Not this time.

We all assume Israel will do the deed but it really could be anyone, even God as He smote Sodom and Gomorrah. It could be NATO. It could be Turkey. It could happen as rebels get a hold of chemical weapons of mass destruction and unleash – accidentally or on purpose – a holocaust that destroys the city. The Syrian bio-weapon threat is huge and growing and quite worrisome now that stability has vanished from the region. It could be that rebels with Libyan weapons that had gone missing from Libya make an attack and things get out of hand. No matter, the fact is, as Damascus becomes increasingly belligerent and the Middle East hotbed that is the epicenter of last days prophecies climbs over the horizon and hurtles toward us, we are closer than ever to that final obliteration of the city of 6 million Isaiah prophesied 2700 years ago. Keep one eye on the news, and the other eye looking UP!
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bible jesus, enering His rest

Rest on the Sabbath, knowing that you will enter His rest soon and forever!

Posted on November 12, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Hello all you wonderful Brothers and Sisters out there. Are the weeks getting longer, or is it just me? LOL, By the time Friday comes, I’m just pooped! If course, I’m thrilled to have been working in a job I love, so no complaints there. Weekends are an opportunity to rest and reflect on the week. I like to think back and go over the times where I may have stumbled and use the weekend for bible reading on the subject I stumbled on. I like to look back and praise the Holy Spirit for when I see where He helped me overcome something. I pray, study and think on Him and His word. Sundays are days for worship and fellowship, praising Him. In short, weekends are not only respite from the busy week but a clearing of space and time to reflect on the relationship I have with Him.

The bible does not speak much of the concept of rest, except that when it does speak of rest, it is always in the future. There are few people resting in the bible, lol. Even in Genesis 49:15 where Jacob said “When he saw that a resting place was good, And that the land was pleasant, He bowed his shoulder to bear burdens, And became a slave at forced labor” it means that they saw that the place was permanent and restful so they worked hard to prepare it for the day in the future when they could rest.

Hebrews 4 discusses rest. In that verse, the LORD is called the Rest. Heaven is the place of rest. (Also Psalms 5:11 and Heb 3:11).

Of course, the most important mention of rest was in Genesis 2:3 where God Himself rested on the 7th day. “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

I like to be busy for the Lord and to use every minute I can to do His will and further His kingdom. But at times we have to stop. Continual work for the sake of work is not good. Though God was not tired, He stopped and rested on the 7th day to show US we need it. In addition, He didn’t just stop and rest, He blessed the day, AND He made it holy.

God made the sabbath a day of rest so rest must be important. He blessed the day, which means we should honor the sabbath and Him who established it in ancient days. He made it holy, putting His holy hands around the day as a hedge to set it apart as a day to honor Him, specifically.

Many other more worthy and academic people have preached on the importance of sabbath rest, so I’ll just say that as busy as I am and I like to be, setting aside a time when I can simply meditate on Him, praise Him, sing to Him, and rejoice in Him is a blessing indeed.

On this earth, we are called to work, to fight, to persevere, to wrestle, to run. There is no rest for us, the weary. At least, NOT YET. Picture the sabbath rests of those few precious hours as a drop of water on the tongue of Lazarus in hell, soothing for but a moment, but when we enter the Rest, and lay down our burdens in heaven, the full flowing water will slake our thirst forever and we may then rest. Imagine how refreshing it will be!

The permanent rest will be as a flowing fountain of peace, thoroughly drenching every cell of ours and relaxing us to a degree none can even imagine. No more fighting! No more persevering! No more wrestling! No more running! Our rest will be Jesus Himself!

Hold on but a bit longer. Enjoy your Sabbath day knowing it is a drop of a foretaste of what is to come. And it will come, and SOON!