Category: bible

Posted in bible, dry up, israel, nile river, prophecy

According to prophecy the Nile River will dry up

Posted on by elizabethprata

There is a famous prophecy that the River Euphrates will be dried up to make way for the Kings of the East. (Revelation 16:12) Historically, the Euphrates is the border between the Middle East and Asia. Biblically, God told Abraham He would give to His people all the land between the Euphrates and the Nile. (Genesis 15:18). The Euphrates is also the place where four demon angels are bound for a day and an hour to perform a certain judgment of God – which is to kill a third of mankind. (Revelation 9:14). The Euphrates was one of the original rivers coming out of the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2:14).

A lot of attention goes to the Euphrates in the bible, justifiably. But the Nile River also figures prominently in the bible and also in prophecy. God uses all to His glory; people, demons, angels, and rivers, too. For example, Moses drifted down the Nile on a basket made of reeds. It is the western border to the Promised Land. It is the main artery that keeps Egypt alive.

As far as prophecy goes for the Nile, in three places in the bible it says that the Nile River will dry up. (Isaiah 19:5, Ezekiel 30:12, and Zechariah 10:11).

Nile Delta from space, source

There are several ways that a river could be dried up. God could directly dry it. (Isaiah 11:15). Man could alter its course via use of a dam or lock system, as history shows Darius did to conquer Babylon. He diverted the Euphrates which flowed under the thick walls of the city and walked in. Or as Hezekiah did in 2 Chronicles 32:3. Or time could make the river dry up or divert, and its course would be lost forever as the terrain naturally changed, like the Gihon River which once flowed out of Eden (Genesis 2:13).

The Nile is a tremendous river with its own presence and personality in the bible. A most mysterious and beautiful river, today about 83% of all Egyptians live by the Nile. It is the world’s longest river, coming in at a whopping 4,100 miles, and it runs through 10 countries. 80% of the water for the Nile comes from Blue Nile which begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia.

Map showing the courses of the White and Blue Nile

The Nile’s annual floods are well known and one of the most regular ‘natural disasters’ in all of the globe. John Feeney wrote and photographed “The Last Nile Flood“. His writing is great and the photographs are phenomenal.

“Flowing out of a barren desert, from a source “beyond all known horizons,” the Nile had baffled the world for thousands of years. Regular as sun and moon, in the middle of burning summer, without a drop of rain in sight, when all other rivers on earth were drying up, for no apparent reason at all, the Nile rose out of its bed every year, and for three months embraced all of Egypt.”

“The ancient Egyptians knew when the flood would come, almost to the hour, but they never knew how much water it would bring to irrigate their fields. Egypt’s prosperity depended not only on the flood but also upon the accurate measurement of its height, for on that depended the allotment of water to its many users and the taxes they would have to pay in the coming year. “Nilometers” built into the river’s banks to measure the flood had, for 4000 years, decreed how much water would be available to irrigate each man’s field.”

“What was it that prevented the ancient Egyptians from finding the source of their great stream and perhaps learning how high it would flood in any given year? In its waters the Nile held many secrets. Fierce roaring cataracts, six series of them in a thousand kilometers (600 mi), guarded the river’s upstream reaches, and neither the pharaohs nor the power of Rome could conquer all the cataracts. And beyond the cataracts, deep within southern Sudan, lay “The Land of the Swamps,” a wilderness of trackless reeds that, even in the 19th century, marked the end of the known world. For hundreds of years, no one who followed the Nile into this swamp ever returned.”

“The Nile’s source was only revealed a little more than a hundred years ago. In the heart of Africa, European explorers discovered a vast chain of equatorial lakes. And rising to nearly 5000 meters (16,000′) above these immense lakes, on the equator between Uganda and the Congo but nonetheless capped with snow, were mountains known as the Ruwenzoris, often identified with Ptolemy’s “Mountains of the Moon.” Around their silent peaks they clasp the frozen vapors of distant oceans. Earth’s greatest single stream, the White Nile, begins upon them. But this was not the complete answer. Why did the river rise so mysteriously every summer to flood Egypt?”

“Away to the east, as impenetrable to outsiders as the swamps, wild as the cataracts, Ethiopia towers above the deserts of Egypt and Sudan. And it was Ethiopia that held the ultimate secret, for here there was another Nile, the Blue Nile, more distant and mightier than even the White.”

Wikipedia explains, “The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that “Egypt was the gift of the Nile”. An unending source of sustenance, it provided a crucial role in the development of Egyptian civilization. Silt deposits from the Nile made the surrounding land fertile because the river overflowed its banks annually. The Ancient Egyptians cultivated and traded wheat, flax, papyrus and other crops around the Nile.” (Left, NASA Composite satellite image of the White Nile.)

And here we pick up the verses that say in future times, the Nile will dry up. For example, regarding a prophecy against Egypt, Isaiah 19:5-9 states,

“And the waters of the sea will be dried up, and the river will be dry and parched, and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away. There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched, will be driven away, and will be no more. The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast a hook in the Nile; and they will languish who spread nets on the water. There will be no flax for the harvesters, no thread for the weavers.”

I wrote so much about the Nile so that you can get an idea that when it dries up, you can comprehend what an ecological disaster for all of Egypt it will be.

One thing that may hurry this disaster along is the dam that Ethiopia is building. We read above that the headwaters were only discovered a century ago and they are in Ethiopia. Ethiopia (and other nations) are tired of Egypt dominating the River. The Ethiopians are building a huge dam so they, too, can control the waters.

Whenever man messes with a river things tend to go wrong. Like when they diverted the Colorado in the western United States and an engineering accident created the Salton Sea instead. Or when they tried to control the annual flooding of the Nile, one of the largest dams in the world was built in Egypt in 1971: Aswan High Dam. That was a big oops. Unfortunately, the rich silt that normally fertilized the dry Egyptian land settled in Lake Nasser after the building of the dam, forcing farmers to use one million tons of artificial fertilizer every year to substitute. (source). The very flooding was what made the land so rich.

So when man messes with the natural flow of things the way God set them up, there are often unintended consequences. The Egyptians have to substitute the loss of the rich silt with man-made fertilizer. What will happen when Ethiopia finishes their dam? There will be intended and unintended consequences. This BBC article says they hurried all the permits through without doing any feasibility studies.

“So urgent was the need to get the dam built quickly that the government short-circuited the usual internationally accepted procedures for these kinds of massive infrastructure projects. … The corporation also short-circuited the environmental and social impact assessment (EIA) process. Instead the study – which gave the project a clean bill of health – was published two years after construction began.”

Instead it is explained that studies and permits are a luxury. From the same article–

“It’s a luxury that Mihert Debeba, head of the Electricity Corporation, said Ethiopia simply can’t afford. He said: “Africa is in the dark. If we have to use very luxurious preconditions we wouldn’t develop any hydro-power. …”

Egypt is definitely not impressed. The following story was posted yesterday–

Egypt, Ethiopia Tiff Over Nile Dam Continues
“New research has suggested there is sufficient water in the Nile to support all 10 countries it flows through. This emerged on Monday as Ethiopia’s massive dam-building plans continued to cause disquiet in downstream Egypt. He made this statement as Ethiopia and Egypt are at each other’s throats over the former’s actions along the Nile River. Top Ethiopia government officials have reportedly said they are looking at jumpstarting the massive Renaissance Dam project along the Nile River in an effort to increase water resources and energy for the East African country. Political analysts have said this could threaten regional stability. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also called on Addis Ababa to push the dam project to the backburner in order to focus on other economic initiatives. While Cairo has denied any intention of attacking the dam, as reported by whistleblower website Wikileaks, the country’s Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Mohamed Bahaa el-Din has reportedly said that Egypt was maintaining its concerns about the construction of the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia.”

But Ethiopia is NOT putting the Addis Ababa dam on the back burner. Posted this week, we read that-

Ethiopia on track to complete first mega-dams by 2015: minister
Energy chief Alemayehu Tegenu said the plan’s centerpiece – the $4.1 billion-Grand Renaissance Dam along the Nile River in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region – was on course to be completed on time in 2015. Two other smaller dams should also come on line by that point, he said, generating a total of more than 8,000 megawatts of power at full capacity.”

So far they have achieved 13 percent of the total construction. When finished, it will be all of Africa’s largest dam.

I bring this up for several reasons. First, let’s look at a map of northern Africa-

There are several wars prophesied to take place in addition to the general warfare that will break out all over the world during the tribulation and its immediate run-up (Matthew 24:6; Revelation 6:4). Psalm 83:6-8 lists the participants who gather to try and “wipe Israel out as a nation,” and yes, that is the exact language in verse Psalm 83:4. So when you hear the Arabs/Muslims cry: “wipe Israel out as a nation” they are echoing the exact language that was prophesied over 2000 years ago!

Tents of Edom—Palestinians and Southern Jordanians
Ishmaelites—Saudis
Moab—Palestinians and Central Jordanians
Hagrites—Egyptians
Gebal—Hezbollah and Northern Lebanese
Ammon—Palestinians and Northern Jordanians
Amalek—Arabs of the Sinai
Philistia—Hamas of the Gaza Strip
Tyre—Hezbollah and Southern Lebanese
Assyria—Syria and Northern Iraqis

And the Gog Magog war of Ezekiel 38-39 will include the nations of Turkey, Iran, Russia, Armenia, and nations at the northern tier of Africa such as Sudan, Ethiopia, and Libya.

When we read of water shortages and dams and nations of Africa at each other’s throats, those tensions will boil over to war between and among them, but eventually their hatred of Israel will prevail over their individual national tiffs and they will come together to attack.

Secondly, I recommend studying the Natural History of these places we read about. Learning the facts about the Nile, and its history, help deepen an understanding of the prophecy about its drying up. When the Lord uses an example of a lion’s prowl, it helps to learn how a lion prowls, how far its roar goes, and other facts about the animal. Same with the agricultural metaphors Jesus used. Most of us are not hand-farmers any more but learning what He means when He says threshing or winnowing will enhance the passage when you read it next.

Ask yourself questions when you read a passage. Why that animal? What are its properties? Where is this place they mention? How far from here to there? What is the terrain? Does it ever rain? What are rainfall amounts…etc. Like that

So I encourage you to learn where the places the bible mentions are, and the topography, climate, animals, etc. It’s fun and it’s interesting and best of all it will help you go deeper into the bible!

Last, I mention the Nile to give a flavor of the unseen-to-us but very present tensions over the issues the bible says will cause a boiling over. Water, lands, tribal, food, political issues and more are all coming up to the surface. For example, it would not take very much for Egypt to make good on their promise to destroy Ethiopia’s dam.

Egypt’s Nile River will dry up. It is one sign to keep looking for, even as you continue to look up!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For further reading:

This is a NatGeo article so of course it has lovely photos. Ethiopia Moves Forward with Massive Nile Dam project

This article from 2010 titled “Nile-lessness” reports water shortages in Egypt due to increased population and increased water consumption

My padt posts on the Natural History of Israel:

Miracle of migratory bird patterns and the Great Supper of the Lamb

Wheat and Tares: learn about darnel

Threshing and winnowing

Making wine, and the winepress

How the topography of the Golan Heights helps Israel

Petra By Night

Posted in bible, prophecy, symbols, wind

A hot wind did blow

Posted on by elizabethprata

“At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them.” (Jeremiah 4:11-12)

The Lord sends the wind. He is the God of this earth and nothing happens on it that He does not cause or allow. Not even a sparrow falls to its death without the permission of the LORD. (Matthew 10:29).

So, He sends the wind.

That was the literal part of my essay. The verses in Jeremiah above are metaphorical. What He had instructed Jeremiah to say is that He sends the wind for different purposes. Firstly, the wind accomplishes His will. “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word” (Psalms 148:8 )

He sends a gentle wind for winnowing. He sends a fruitful wind for planting. He sends a wind for cleansing (Job 37:21). In the case of judgment He sends a hot wind that doesn’t salve, but agitates. It is a hot wind, a damaging wind, a full wind that scorches and destroys. Barnes Notes explains:

“A dry wind – literally, A clear wind. The Samum is probably meant, a dry parching east wind blowing from the Arabian desert, before which vegetation withers, and human life becomes intolerable. Not to fan … – The Syrian farmers make great use of the wind for separating the chaff from the grain: but when the Samum blows labor becomes impossible. It is not for use, but for destruction.”

We can ignore the wind, but that won’t work. We can rely on the wind for planting and winnowing. The wind purifies and cleanses.

But woe to those who ignore the wind.

We cannot outrun the wind. It will catch us. The wind blows where it will. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8).

When the wind is destructive it means it is of the judgments of God:

  • “In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.” (Isaiah 27:8)
  • “Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.” (Isaiah 29:6)
  • “Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 41:16)

You can think of the wind as the breath of God.

When you read the bible, think on these metaphors. Yesterday I wrote of the light an the darkness. Today I write of the wind. The bible uses symbols for a reason. Symbols don’t change. Words change, symbols do not. Planting is planting. Reaping is reaping, Lions prowl. Sheep follow.

As far as the wind goes, you should always let the wind of the Spirit move you as the wind moves a sail. The sail bows to the wind, letting the wind fill it, and gently guide and propel the sail to move the boat. It is all harmony, the wind and the sail and the boat and the water as one unit.

When you sail, and the wind is behind you, it is smooth and quiet sailing. Quite peaceful. If you try and sail into the wind it is called “beating”. It really does feel like you’re getting beaten. The wind is loud. The waves are choppy. The boat balks. The sails refuse to fill and you have to constantly adjust them. You’re working against the wind in that case, sailing upwind as close as you can to the no-go zone. The boat heels over and the sails, mast, and people sailing it are stressed. The direction you go relative to the wind matters. The best thing to do when sailing into an upwind destination is to simply change your destination and thus go with the wind.

Pay attention to where the wind blows, and change your destination. If a person refuses to repent, all they will sow is a hot wind that destroys.

Much better to go with the gentle wind, allowing it to push us, purify us, cleanse us. Jesus is Lord, kind and good.
.

Posted in bible, jesus, king of kings and lord of lords, new name, prophecy

What’s in a name? We get a new name, and Jesus does too

Posted on by elizabethprata

Most of us love to look up the background to our names. Personally I used to enjoy looking up the meaning of my name, Elizabeth, though I was always bemused about it. The name means “oath of God.” I was not saved so I thought that the name was a big miss, because I was far from God. Until I turned 43, that is, and then I was saved.

In the bible when babies were named it was a big deal. The Hebrew parents tried to give a name they thought would capture the essence of the baby’s character or capture what they hoped their baby would become. The bible verse usually took some time to let us know what that name meant.

Last names are fun to look up too. Surnames place us, identify us with a tribe, or sometimes, a profession. In modern times we’ve forgotten that the last name Smith used to be short for blacksmith, or Cooper mean maker of barrels. In the bible there was Alexander the Coppersmith, (2 Timothy 4:14), and Simon the Tanner, (Acts 9:43, Acts 10:32).

Alternately some in the bible times were known by their father’s name, such as James the son of Zebedee (Matthew 4:21) or Levi son of Alphaeus, who was also known by his profession, hated as it was: Levi the Tax Collector. When the assembled at the synagogue in Jesus’s hometown listened to Jesus they were astonished, and said “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?” (Mark 6:3). This was offensive, a way of saying ‘isn’t he the bastard?’ Because they did not say ‘Isn’t this the son of Joseph?’ Instead they said the son of Mary, naming the mother. This was not done. You were always the son of the father. This is the place where Jesus said a prophet is without honor in his own hometown.

Mary Magdalene was known as the Mary of the town of Magdalene and of course our own Jesus was known as Jesus of Nazareth.

There were nicknames in the bible, also. James and John were nicknamed Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder. We would translate that as “hot heads.” Simon was called Peter for rock.

Adam was tasked with naming all the animals (Genesis 1:19) and Adam also named Eve (Genesis 2:20).

Hannah humbly and fervently asked of God that he would grant her a son. He did, and she named him Samuel, which means ‘asked of God’. “She called his name Samuel, “since she had asked the Lord for him” (1 Samuel 1:20).

In Genesis 35:18 we have a case of a name change done by the father- “And it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-oni: Son of my sorrow: but his father Jacob called him Benjamin, “Son of my right hand.”

Methuselah meant ‘he has sent his death’. And you thought YOUR name was depressing! Literally it meant that God would not send death until Methuselah died. Methuselah was the longest living person in history, 969 years. God’s patience is great! When Methuselah died, the flood came within the year. (Exodus 5:21-32).

Sometimes when someone is given a new name in the bible, it means that they have a new identity. It can work to the negative or to the positive. For example, when Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar, he captured many of the youth to bring back to Babylon with him, including “Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.” (Daniel 1:6). One way to demoralize and assimilate prisoners was to give them a new name. This was in effect giving them a new identity, and cutting them off in every way from their old identity.

As for Daniel and the three friends…. “And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.” Each Hebrew name had been carefully chosen by the parents, and to try and separate them from that identity, they were given names of false gods.

Jamison-Fausset-Brown Dictionary:

“He gave names–designed to mark their new relation, that so they might forget their former religion and country ( Genesis 41:45 ). But as in Joseph’s case (whom Pharaoh called Zaphnath-paaneah), so it was in Daniel’s. His name means God my Judge, the theme of his prophecies being God’s judgment on the heathen world powers, was given the name indicative of his relation to a heathen court (“Belteshazzar,” that is, “Bel’s prince”). To Hananiah–that is, “whom Jehovah hath favored.” was given the name Shadrach–from Rak, in Babylonian, “the King,” that is, “the Sun”; the same root as in Abrech, inspired or illumined by the Sun-god.”

Mishael–that is, “who is what God is?” Who is comparable to God? was given Meshach–The Babylonians retained the first syllable of Mishael, the Hebrew name; but for El, that is, GOD, substituted Shak, the Babylonian goddess, called Sheshach (Jeremiah 25:26, 51:41), answering to the Earth, or else Venus, the goddess of love and mirth; it was during her feast that Cyrus took Babylon.

Azariah–that is, “whom Jehovah helps” was given the name Abed-nego–that is, “servant of the shining fire.”

Thus, instead of to Jehovah, these His servants were dedicated by the heathen to their four leading gods; Bel, the Chief-god, the Sun-god, Earth-god, and Fire-god. The names thus at the outset are significant of the seeming triumph, but sure downfall, of the heathen powers before Jehovah and His people. (source)

Esther is the Persian name (star) of the Hebrew youth named Hadassah (means myrtle), taken to live at Xerxes’s court. (Esther 2:7)

Unlike Joseph, Daniel, and the three friends who were given new pagan names by evil kings to help them forget their identity as one of God’s chosen ones and to force a new identity in the pagan courts, sometimes God Himself gives a new name to mark the beginning of a new identity.

There are several examples of examples of people in the Bible who were given new names by God:
Abram to Abraham (Gen 17:5)
Sarai to Sarah (Gen 17:15)
Jacob to Israel (Gen 32:23)
Oshea (or Hoshea) to Joshua (Num 13:16)
Simon to Peter (Mt 16:17-18)
Saul to Paul (Acts 13:9)

There are several verses in the Bible that speak of us receiving a new name in Heaven: Rev 2:17, Isa 62:2, Rev 3:12.

Revelation 2:17- “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’”

Isaiah 62:2- The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.”

Revelation 3:12- “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”

When we enter the kingdom above, three names are again written upon us; the name of God, the name of the heavenly city, and Christ’s heavenly name.

But get this–

JESUS gets a new name too!?!? Is it the name written on His thigh, “King of kings, and Lord of lords,” (Revelation 19:16)? Is it a completely new name? “His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.” (Revelation 19:12). What is this new name? We don’t know. MacArthur explains the verse:

“Christ’s own new name. What does that mean? Well the name of God or the name of Christ means all that He is. We know Christ, we know Christ but we only know what we have read, we haven’t seen Him. The moment we see Him His persona will take on utterly new dimensions. And whatever we may have called Him and understood by the name will pale in the reality of what we see. And there will be a new name to describe Him. And He’ll give us that new name and we’ll be privileged to call Him by it.”

Robin Schumacher wrote, “At present and incommunicable and known only to God, to be hereafter revealed and made the believer’s own union with God in Christ. Christ’s name written on Him denotes he shall be wholly Christ’s.” (source)

O, the joys keep coming! We will receive a new name from Christ and He will privilege us to hear His new name we may call Him by! It gets better and better, doesn’t it? The best is yet to come. We have that glorious moment to look forward to, and whatever His new name will be, I know that it is only by His blood that my sinful lips may utter it. He cleanses and purifies, and though I long for that Day, for now I am all joy to call Him JESUS.

Posted in bible, word

Verses that resonated with me this week. How about you?

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’m reading through Jeremiah right now. Well, ‘reading through’ is a bit of a misnomer. I intended to read through, but I can’t seem to get past Jeremiah 1 & 2 and I got stuck at one section in Jeremiah 23 for a bit. I keep getting stuck at the freshness of the verses and the application they make to my heart. I guess for a while I’ll be chewing on Jeremiah 1-2 as meat and not reading through in one swoop. I love meditating on Jeremiah as I ponder the truths there. The verses seem to applicable to today! There are three in particular that stopped me cold, and made me really think.

I don’t know if this happens to you, but I would be reading along and then I hit a brick wall at 60 mph. Even in trying to share how hard they hit me, words fail. The depth of spiritual application, the welling-up of personal emotion, and the hard mental stress I felt when the verses lit up my Spirit cannot be described. This is one verse that hit me:

#1– Thus says the Lord:

“What wrong did your fathers find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? (Jeremiah 2:5)

This verse is devastating when you think about it. God uses a rhetorical question to ask ‘what is the matter with me that you go after idols?’ It is rhetorical because, of course, there is nothing the matter with God. He is perfect. Therefore the answer should be clear. It is ridiculous to go away from God because there is no substitute. We know this in our heads, but the verse hit me in the heart. I prayed that I would not go away from Him in any way.

“for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.” 
(Jer 2:13) (source).
 Trying to carry water in a sieve…how sad to think of all the effort and work a non-believer would go through to attain a semblance of religious favor is pointless. The water will always run out. It does nothing except fall on  the ground, void. The point is stark: Jesus is the Living Water and His water refreshes and never runs out.

This next verse which gets me at the core of my Spirit is this one: the hammer–

“Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29).

The Word has the power to shatter a hard heart. This truth both pierces me and sustains me. I hope that you have moments when you are reading the Word you come across a verse that really brings fresh illumination to its truths.

What has stopped you in your tracks lately?

Posted in bible, fatherhood

TV Dads: the good, the bad, and the ugly

Posted on by elizabethprata

I thought I’d take a break from encouragement and theological stuff for a minute and ponder the important question of TV dads. LOL 🙂

How men have been presented to us via the television broadcast is an important topic, because satan has co-opted Hollywood and TV and seeks to instill discontent, present a skewed version of the Godly family, and generally to wreak havoc.

TV is a way to present reality back to the society and when we watch enough of it, even the most outlandish presentation will seem to become normative.

I bring this up because TVLand has begun showing The Cosby Show reruns. I’m old enough to remember the show when it first came on. I had forgotten how wholesome it is. Bill Cosby is married to his first love, he works, he loves his children, he goes to church, he prays, and he is affectionate. He is not made to look like a doofus, or stupid or non-essential. He is undeniably the final arbiter of decision-making in the show.

It was a rare oasis in the midst of the inevitable decline in the institution of fatherhood as shown on television.

Below are some thoughts, and certainly are not comprehensive. I did not mention all the families on tv at the decade listed, of course. Maybe some of your faves were left out. I just want to give an overview of the progression of how fatherhood is presented and remind us of what the bible expects from dads.

50s Father Knows Best: (1949-1960). This show is representative of the best kind of family entertainment. The dad was “a thoughtful father who offered sage advice whenever one (or more) of his children had a problem.” (Wiki). He was a professional man, and his stay at home wife was common-sense and supportive. Today, would tv producers even allow the show’s title?

60s My Three Sons (widower), Bonanza (widower), Andy Griffith (widower), Courtship of Eddie’s Father (widower). Bachelor Father (single, raising his orphaned niece). This decade began a troublesome trope in television: the motherless family. Was this due to feminism’s appearance? Societal discontent that was bubbling under the surface which exploded in the latter part of the decade in the sexual revolution? In Andy Griffith’s world spinster Aunt Bee helped raise the son and in My Three Sons, the grandfather and then the Dad’s brother helped in the household. However, despite the lack of a mom in the household the father was presented as solid, loving, manly, involved, and in charge.

70s Brady Bunch, 1969-1974. Mike Brady is shown as an involved dad, respected community member, and successful professional. In one episode he was named Father of the Year after his step-daughter submitted an essay. Mike Brady is considered the best TV dad of that decade, but his family situation differed from the earlier nuclear family of the fifties such as Ozzie & Harriet and Leave it to Beaver. We now have a blended family, three of the children are his and three are his second wife’s. Carol Brady was originally intended to be a divorcee, but the network objected, and in a compromise of sorts, they never mentioned why her first marriage ended. Remarriage was now presented as a norm.

Good Times: 1974-1979. This was the first show to depict an inner-city apartment dwelling impoverished black family. The family was nuclear, though (but the neighbor was a divorced single mom with an adopted daughter). The dad of the household was James Evans and worked at whatever he had to in order to provide for his family. He loved his wife and was warm and loving toward her as he was to his children. Both the series’ main characters, John Amos as the dad and Esther Rolle as the mom, initially approved of the show’s direction because it had a strong father figure and a loving nuclear family. However as the show’s eldest son’s character became more stereotypical (bufoonish, illiterate, and lazy) and both actors became vocal about the negative direction, first the dad was written out of the series and then the mom. Despite the loss of both parents, the show continued to do well in the ratings. The next door divorcee became the main parent.

70s All in the Family (1971-1979). Opposite Mike Brady’s successful handling of his home and professional life, tv dad Archie Bunker is presented as a bumbling, gruff, bigoted, ignorant dad the family must suffer through living with. His advice was always wrong, and his ways were always out of step. He berated his wife in front of his child and in front of others by telling her to stifle herself and calling her a dingbat. I remember this being the first tv dad I would not want as my dad. During its initial run the show was a huge success and after its cancellation it was listed as one of the ‘greatest tv shows of all time”. Part of the set is now in the Smithsonian Institution. In my opinion this character began the decline of the tv dad. It was shown that it was OK to make the dad an ignorant buffoon and the show would still be highly rated. The rest is history: dad’s authority vanished.

80s Cosby (1984-1992) vs Roseanne. (1988-1997) This was the decade of the rise of the subverted patriarchal authority. Either overtly or covertly, women took over. Cosby Show’s Cliff Huxtable was an exception, but other dads such as Dan in Roseanne, Homer Simpson in The Simpsons, cede territory to the wife where the bible clearly says is the husband’s/dad’s. And Homer is just dim-witted and lazy.

In Who’s The Boss (no more ‘father knows best’, now we’re not so sure…) a retired major league baseball player named Tony Micelli relocates to Fairfield, Connecticut to work as a live-in housekeeper for a divorced advertising executive who was the household’s sole breadwinner. Talk about patriarchal authority’s diminishment! And not surprisingly the show was one of the most popular sitcoms of the mid-to-late-1980s, consistently placing in the top ten throughout most if its run. To be fair, the reason for the dad’s decision to become a live-in housekeeper was to provide a better environment for his daughter after the mom died, but to take a job as a housekeeper was consistent with the 80s push for men to be presented as subservient to the woman of the house. The blended family in this case included the mom’s mother as a slut. (Oops, sorry a “sexually progressive older woman.”)

In the 80s the pace picked up of moms who were absent from the show, many of whom unlike in the 50s and 60s were not depicted dead, but had abandoned their kids. Diff’rent Strokes, Punky Brewster, My Two Dads, Gimme a Break, Silver Spoons, Full House, Who’s the Boss?, Blossom, Empty Nest are just a few examples. The disruption of the family as presented to society via television was in full swing. What was happening in society at that time: No-fault divorce.

Dan Conner in Roseanne often battled wills with his forceful and outspoken wife (I’m being generous here). Dan was often unemployed while his wife was the sole breadwinner, and later he was depicted as an adulterer.

90s Everybody Loves Raymond, (1996-2005). Father Ray Barone was dominated by his stay at home wife, and dominated worse by his mother- who lived across the street. He was shown as a mama’s boy caving in to his mother’s demands while often throwing his wife’s needs under the bus, often in front of the family or in public. He was selfish as a husband and a dad and was never shown as sacrificing for his family or wife. The family dynamic was depicted as political one-upsmanship, gamesmanship, or conspiratorial ploys to get one’s way. The wife was not supported or nurtured but was someone to either have sex with or serve dinner-both of which he often complained about the lack thereof. The dad was shown as working for a living and providing a nice home for his family but at the same time disparaging his wife’s contribution to the house as stay at home mom. The dad was shown as lazy and uninvolved, even ignorant of having fatherly abilities. (Books were given, classes were taken).

2000s Family Guy (1999–2002, 2005–2010). I have never seen this show and I never will. Wikipedia describes it: “The show revolves around the adventures of the family of Peter Griffin, a bumbling blue-collar worker. Peter is an Irish-American Catholic with a prominent Rhode Island and Eastern Massachusetts accent. He is married to Lois, a stay-at-home mother and piano teacher who, as member of the Pewterschmidt family of wealthy socialites, has a distinct New England accent. Peter and Lois have three children: Meg, their teenage daughter, who is awkward and does not fit in at school, and is constantly ridiculed and ignored by the family; Chris, their teenage son, who is overweight, unintelligent and a younger version of his father in many respects; and Stewie, their diabolical infant son of ambiguous sexual orientation who has adult mannerisms and uses stereotypical archvillain phrases. Living with the family is Brian, the family dog, who is highly anthropomorphized, drinks martinis, and engages in human conversation, though he is still considered a pet in many respects.” It has been nominated for 13 Emmy Awards and has won four.

I have no words. We went from Father Knows Best to father knows nothing.

I bring this up because in watching the Cosby Show last night, there was a scene of great tenderness. Cliff comes down the stairs in the middle of the night, searching for his wife who is absent from the bed. He finds her at the desk, working. He gently asks her if anything is the matter, and she says she couldn’t sleep and decided to work. He asks if he has been snoring again and she admits he was. “Why didn’t you turn me over?” he asks, and she laughs and said she had turned him every which way but his snoring didn’t abate, so she came downstairs. Cliff asks her to come back to bed and she says she wants to work a while longer. He looks lovingly at her for a moment and then gently picks her up and dances with her up the stairs. Her low laughter echoes in the room as the light is turned off.

This scene remained with me because it is tender. Where is the tender, selfless care by tv fathers and dads these days? Husbandly and fatherly tenderness is absent from tv today. I am not speaking of a tenderness that is effeminate, but of a strong, loving, tenderness. Most of the time today we see that if a husband (or lover) awoke in bed alone he’d smile and grab all the covers, never mind actually get up to see if his bride was all right.

The bible says a husband/father is to leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife. (Genesis 2:24). That leaves Ray Barone out.

Husbands are to have authority over their wives. (1 Corinthians 11:3). That leaves Dan Conner out.

Husbands are to respect their wives. (1 Peter 3:7). That leaves Archie Bunker out. In one Everybody Loves Raymond episode, Ray calls his wife Debra a “smelly tramp.”

Husbands are to consult with their wives. (Genesis 31:4-7). That leaves Ray Barone out.

Husbands are to love them. (Ephesians 5:25-33). That leaves Dan Conner out.

Fathers are to love their children. (Psalm 103:13). That leaves Family Guy out.

Fathers are to discipline their children. (Hebrews 12:7). That leaves Ray Barone & Homer Simpson out.

Fathers are to train their children in the way they should go. (Proverbs 22:6; Eph 6:4). In the one episode in Everybody Loves Raymond I saw that showed some kind of faith, Debra asked Ray why he didn’t go to church, and his response was typically selfish. He was pressured into going and then spent the entire episode envying his father and brother’s ‘escape’ into the vestibule to count the offering money, when he wasn’t daydreaming or nodding off, that is. Except in the Cosby Show, I never have seen positive portrayal of prayer, church or the Lord mentioned on a sitcom. (above, Ray in bathrobe eating cereal out of the box while his nicely dressed family leaves for church)

One show that I do enjoy for presenting Godly men in Christian households is Duck Dynasty. Every episode ends with a prayer (though editors chop out the part where they say “In Jesus’s name”). The men are caring, involved, patriarchs, Godly men who do not swear, love their wives and run their households according to biblical standards. When the son was wrestling with a big decision he had to make his father offered the following advice: “Anytime I make a decision, I take a walk in the woods and talk to the Almighty.” Satan must hate this show.

Brethren, please consult your bible to see how fathers and husbands are shown and try to keep your children from watching shows that are contrary to it. If you do watch shows or movies that vary with the biblical presentation of dads, then talk to your older children about the difference, and emphasize what the bible expects from men in those roles. It makes a difference what we show to our kids. Even better, strive to BE that husband and father that God enables you through the Spirit to be.

If you know of some good and Godly shows where the men are presented biblically, please do share.

Above, patriarch Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty prays over the family before dinner
Posted in bible, god's word

"Oh, but the bible is so outdated…"

Posted on by elizabethprata

I am sure you hear people saying that we can’t follow ALL that is in the bible because it is culturally irrelevant, outdated, dry and dusty. It isn’t fresh and relevant to this new millennium, or our advanced culture, you know.

Really?

Well think on this: when Paul preached and quoted the Old Testament at least 183 times, and referred to people or places or events dozens more, much of the Old Testament was as old to the first century Christians as the New Testament is to us now.

The New Testament writers overall included approximately 250 express Old Testament quotations, and if including indirect or partial quotations, the number jumps to more than 1,000.

Did Paul say, “The Prophets were good men, but we don’t need to follow their example now, because our society can’t relate to theirs. That was 1400 years ago. It’s a different time now.” Or did he say,

“all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11)

The bible is just as relevant today as it was when Job was written, the book scholars believe is the earliest in chronology. When I read stuff like this:

“An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?” (Jeremiah 5:31-32)

Which by the way is happening now in our faith with so many false prophets and teachers, I see the bible as prescient and relevant.

Or this:

“For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely” (Jeremiah 6:13)

Also happening. It is a fresh word because though penned by men, it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit lives outside of time.

Or this-

“They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”

Which is a current headline, “We could wipe out Israel, says Iranian military chief”, I stand amazed.

The Bible is not obsolete nor irrelevant. The author of the book The Shack wrote insultingly of God’s word, saying at one point, “God’s voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellect” (pp 65-66). He also write disparagingly of devotionals with a bible, “Images of family devotions from his childhood came spilling into his mind, not exactly good memories…He half expected Jesus to pull out a huge old King James Bible.” (p. 107). There are lots of ways to denigrate His Word, either outright rejection or a sly chipping away like William P Young did of The Shack. Don’t fall for it.

It is vibrant and as fresh as the day the Spirit inspired it and the 40 men wrote it. It is the most relevant book on earth, ever. The non-Christian cannot understand it, but for the Christian, it reveals all truth. Please take the time to read it daily.

Posted in bible, enemy, media, prophecy

"Infomercials for dictators", or How the Media is now our Enemy

Posted on by elizabethprata

I read a headline the other day I didn’t follow up on. I’m following up on it now, because I read a second headline that startled me even more. The first headline was from Pat Caddell, who said that the “press is the enemy of the American people”. Pat Caddell is a former Democratic pollster. He said in his speech in part,

“it is one thing for the news to have a biased view, but It is another thing to specifically decide that you will not tell the American people information they have a right to know.”

“But all I want to conclude to this is that we face a fundamental danger here. The fundamental danger is this: I talked about the defense of the First Amendment. The press’s job is to stand in the ramparts and protect the liberty and freedom of all of us from a government and from organized governmental power. When they desert those ramparts and decide that they will now become active participants, that their job is not simply to tell you who you may vote for, and who you may not, but, worse—and this is the danger of the last two weeks—what truth that you may know, as an American, and what truth you are not allowed to know, they have, then, made themselves a fundamental threat to the democracy, and, in my opinion, made themselves the enemy of the American people. And it is a threat to the very future of this country if that—we allow this stuff to go on. We have crossed a whole new and frightening slide on the slippery slope this last two weeks, and it needs to be talked about.”

The reference to “the last two weeks was about the terrorist attack in Libya, killing an American Ambassador, and the subsequent refusal of the White House to admit it was a terrorist attack, the collusion of the media to not press the issue, nor even report on the many embassy attacks after the Libyan attack.

I agree with Caddell that the media is the Peoples’ enemy. The Media is colluding with the ones the media is supposed to inform us about and protect us from by giving good information. We cannot make informed choices if we are not informed. We saw that clearly in the 2007-2008 Presidential campaign. Just ask Joe the Plumber.

I lived in a small town in the 90s. There was one weekly newspaper in addition to the daily big city paper. The little paper reported on the doings around town, the activities of the council and school board, had a religious column in it, as well as the obits and lunch menus. You know the kind of paper.

Well, when it started in the 70s, it was a good, activist, journalistic paper. It did its job with courage and without favor. But as the 80s wore on it became tame and innocuous, but at least it did no harm. When the paper was taken over by its new editor in the 90s, it became a lapdog organ for local government and a club to browbeat active citizens. It published without impunity innuendo, sarcasm, and outright lies, if it thought it would help their friends in town hall. The paper even moved into a town building, where it got its rent for free! The whole thing sucked swamp water.

Well, I was not active nor interested in town doings for most of the decade. I traveled widely with my husband and much of the time we were not at home. When I was, I didn’t read the rag.

But then I did get involved through no volition of my own. The government came to us, and it wasn’t here to help us. So we sought redress for our grievance through the regular means available to all citizens, committee advocacy, positive change through petitioning, and began a process of a charter change. [The charter was the governing document of the town]. All this was outlined in normal methods available to any citizen, However, most normal citizens never availed themselves of those means, due to the browbeating they’d get in the paper. We ignored that and went forward.

As the issues wore on and I knew the truth because I was living it, and read the lies the paper was producing, and wondered about the gap, I mulled over what to do. As soon as our government issue was concluded (satisfactorily to my side), I decided I’d start a newspaper to compete with the monopoly-stranglehold going on in my town. Citizens were being hurt, freedom of speech was not allowed, and the government and media had too close a relationship. This is never a good thing for a democracy.  I started my paper to shoehorn in a crowbar between the coziness of the other paper and the local government, which was run by the way, via nepotism and patronage.

My paper was successful and won awards. It grew economically as the advertiser base expanded. In content, I sought to educate the citizenry as to their rights and duties, to put the local government on notice they were being watched, fairly, but watched nonetheless, to show what journalistic standards should be, and to reflect a vibrant and lovely community back to itself.

The other paper did not go gently into that good night. They employed every dirty trick, every lowbrow act, and every mean thing they could to subdue us. I would not be cowed, and eventually I ran the other paper into the ground. They sold out and then I sold the paper and moved to GA. My work there was done, lol.

I was saved by Jesus during that 8 years. As I grew in faith I began to realize the Lord’s provision was such that the event (and there was much more I haven’t told you, including spiritual warfare!) was a microcosm for what went on nationally in 2007-2008. During the first Obama campaign, we saw a media abdicate its responsibility to the citizens, collude with government, exist by nepotism, monopoly, and patronage, fail to properly vet the candidates or inform the electorate as to the issues in a fair manner, and browbeat citizens, companies, or candidates who didn’t conform to the media’s standards or ideals. Just ask Joe the Plumber.

When you have a media that refuses to reflect the society back to itself you have a society with a skewed view. An uninformed society. An apathetic society. All these things are anathema to an active democracy. In that sense, the media as the Fourth Estate has become the enemy of freedom, a treasonous entity set to destroy us. I am convinced of this. Just look at the words of Mr Caddell.

Now I want to bring you to another article I read today. As you read the excerpt I’ll post, keep in mind that America’s Fifth Fleet docks at Bahrain. We NEED Bahrain to maintain our presence in the Gulf. On Russia Today’s website, they published the following:

‘Bahrain buys favorable CNN content’
“Amid a violent crackdown on a popular uprising, Bahrain paid CNN to get favorable coverage, says a former reporter who believes her documentary on the protests there was censored by the network. What CNN is doing is they are essentially creating what some people have termed “infomercials for dictators.” And that’s the sponsored content that they are airing on CNN International that is actually being paid for by regimes and governments. And this violates every principle of journalistic ethics, because we’re supposed to be watchdogs on these governments. We are not supposed to allow them to be a paying customer as journalists. And that’s the issue here – that CNN is feeding, then, this propaganda to the public and not fairly disclosing to the public that this is sponsored content.”

I’ve often thought about the Tribulation and media. As we watched the Iran uprising and then the Arab Spring on Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook, I know, and you know, that the unfettered access to citizen journalism will be the first thing to go. The Main Stream Media is already gone. Dear ones, do not even trust Fox News. Pastor JD Farag noticed a distinct shift in tone regarding Israel over the last year and a half, and he noted this may be due to the fact that News Corp.’s second-largest shareholder, after the Murdoch family, is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the nephew of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, and one of the world’s richest men.

The powers that be will NOT allow people to express themselves. Christians certainly will be shut off.

I read an article about  Duck Dynasty today. Duck Dynasty is a reality TV show on A&E that follows the Robertson family, makers of duck calls. The family has a staunch faith in Jesus. Each show ends with a prayer around the family dinner table, and though each and every prayer is ended with the phrase, “In Jesus’ name” each and every time, the editors chop that part out. Hardly any depiction of their faith is given light of day. The folks on the show do not swear, so to spice things up, the editors bleeped a couple of non-curse words anyway! The article is here, and it is really good in showing how the Robertsons, fervent and relentless evangelizers, plan to get around the censorship.

If media won’t even allow a faithful family, on a hit show  (which means America WANTS to see the Robertsons) to express their faith by saying Jesus, what do you think it will be like during the time of total sin, the Tribulation? Total censorship. Total collusion with power-brokers, and what you see on tv and in the movies and in the papers will be at your peril. Satan has surely claimed Hollywood. I think we all recognize that. The media IS our enemy.

The Tribulation will be a time for total sin to saturate the world. That means every organization will also be total sin. Media included. Revelation 18 shows the mourning of the world’s merchants, kings, captains, and seafarers at the fall of Babylon. Revelation 17 shows the death of the world’s religious system. So if the economic organization is total sin, media will not escape that economic death. Their collusion by filthy lucre to the governments will be exposed and the cause of death on their certificate will be “FORNICATION.” Their prostituting of themselves may seem sweet to them now, but it will cost them heavily on the LORD’S Day.

The media is an enemy of the state, taking money from dictators to produce infomercials. Read/watch/listen at your own risk.

How wonderful we can turn to the bible for all truth! I find it exhilarating that the world’s headlines are in the bible right now. The things the dictators are saying are almost word for word in the bible. The events we see happening are lining up exactly. We can take heart that His word is not polluted, but pure. He is the Sinless Groom, glowing and holy, and His word is the same. The bible is the enemy of the world but is the friend, comforter, and sustainer of the Christian who seeks truth. Seek it not in the news media, but in the holy scriptures. It does a body good!

Posted in bible, jesus, judgment, rob bell, satan

Back to Basics: Who is Satan?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Satan is real.

He was God’s covering cherub, the highest of the high, and the most beautiful. (Ezekiel 28:14-17). This means he is an angel and therefore a created being under God’s sovereignty. The eternal clash between good and evil is not one of equal opposites, but one of rebellion of a created being against an uncreated, holy God. (Isaiah 14:13-14)

We hear satan’s actual voice three times in the bible. Once in Genesis 3:1-5 when he is talking with Eve in the Garden of Eden. There, he insinuated to Eve that God is not good enough to her by not letting her have all the fruit of the Garden. The second time we hear him speak, it’s in heaven to God about Job. (Job 1:7-11). There, he told God that God was being too good to Job. The third time is when satan tempts Jesus. (Luke 4:1-12). In that scene, he used several the schemes in his arsenal (temptation of the body, temptation of power, temptation of testing God) and when he failed, he went away until another opportune time. (Luke 4:13).

These scenes tell us that satan has many schemes in his bag of tricks, he is not hesitant to use them against people, or Jesus or even GOD, and that he never quits.

Satan is mentioned in the Gospels twenty-nine times. And twenty-five of those times, Jesus is the one talking about Satan. Satan is mentioned in seven Old Testament books and every New Testament book.

Satan is a real person. He is not allegory, a metaphor or a figment. If you believe he is an allegory or figment or just an evil force, then you destroy the integrity and truthfulness of every NT book, each Gospel, a quarter of the Old Testament, and the character of Jesus. It is not possible to disbelieve satan is real but also believe the rest of the bible is truthful, historical, prophetic, and the word of God.

Satan is not in hell. He is not the ruler of hell. So where is he? He is roaming up and down upon the earth. (Job 1:7, Job 2:2; 1 Peter 5:8). Satan is the prince of the air. (Ephesians 2:2). Satan is in heaven accusing the brethren. (Revelation 12:10; Job 1:6). God has granted limited and temporary sovereignty to satan, for he is the god of this world. (2 Corinthians 4:4). From this we see that satan has been granted much latitude by God on earth, the air and in heaven.

Satan is busy! He is accusing the brethren, roaming the earth, fighting the holy angels, sowing tares among the wheat, polluting the doctrine. He is wreaking devastation and destruction. (John 10:10). And much more!

What is satan’s destiny? When satan rebelled in the primordial past, God prepared hell for satan and his angels. (Matthew 25:41). There will be no offer to repent and no opportunity to come to salvation. The devil and his angels’ futures are fixed. (John 16:11). Meanwhile, God uses their evil for His good and glory.

During the time since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden, satan has been allowed latitude in each of the three spheres of earth, air and heaven. However, midway through the Tribulation, he will be thrown out of heaven and access will no longer be granted to him or his angels. Perhaps satan thought he would be able to go on like this forever. God’s patience is longsuffering, but it does have an end, and satan gets tossed. He and his angels will be furious and will wreak that fury on the population of the earth. Woe to them! (Revelation 12:7-17).

At the conclusion of the Tribulation, satan will be thrown into the abyss and locked up for 1000 years. When 1000 years is over, he will be let out for a little while to foment one last, short, rebellion. (Revelation 20:3; 8). After that time he will be thrown into the lake of fire, the place prepared for him in the primordial past. His angels will be thrown there too, (Revelation 20:10) along with every person who followed him. (Revelation 20:15).

To all the precious brethren, fighting and strong or struggling and weak: he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. We need not fear satan, but we do need to appreciate his capabilities and thus rely on the Holy Spirit more than ever. And to the lost: make no mistake, satan is real.

Rob Bell casts aspersions on the Holy Word. In his infamous book, “Love Wins“, Bell wrote about hell and by definition, satan,

“‘A staggering number of people have been taught that a few select 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. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. 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.’ “

Oh, woe to those who disbelieve Jesus’s words about future judgment for sin and His word to John in Revelation about the Book of Life. If your name is not written in it, you will be thrown into the Lake of Fire to be tormented forever.

Mr Bell believes love wins: and he is right, it does. Look at the cross! God’s love of humanity- expressed through Jesus-  triumphed over evil and sin and death! (Colossians 2:13-15). However, Mr Bell believes love and holiness are mutually exclusive. They are not. Holiness wins too. (John 9:39). All one needs to do is look at the lake of fire- the place prepared for the devil and his angels, and all those who follow satan. (Matthew 12:30-32). Unless you believe in Jesus, you are actually following satan by default. When you die, you will follow satan right into the Lake of Fire.

Now for some encouragement to the brethren:

“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” (John 12:31).

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Thanks be to God for Jesus!

Those are a few facts about satan. As always, read the word for yourselves to see if these things are true.

Posted in bible, gay marriage, homosexuality, traditional marriage

First polygamous marriage in Brazil sparks outrage

Posted on by elizabethprata

First this:
In an article from June 2012 in the UK, we read that, “A lobby group against gay marriage, formed by Ministers of Parliament and bishops, is embroiled in a row after one of its leaflets claimed that the logical argument for reforming the law would be equally applicable to the legalisation of incest and polygamy. The eight-page document, produced by the Keep Marriage Special campaign, whose supporters include the former bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir Ali, warns of the “consequential impact” of the reform. The leaflet claims: “If the only basis for marriage is the desire of the parties to get married then there is, according to the logic of this proposal, no reason not to open up marriage to more than just same-sex couples. Polygamy, polyandry and incest would all be permissible.”

Conservatives and Christians have long predicted that if a government allows the basic definition of marriage to be redefined, it would lead to a downward slide of not only marriage itself but society as a whole. We are mocked for this position, but we see it coming true today in many countries and in many ways.

On National Public Radio a few months ago, a discussion was held between opponents of homosexual marriage and defenders of it. Speaking against gay marriage was Austin Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal consulting group. Mr Nimocks said,

“[O]ne of the reasons that proponents of marriage and maintaining marriage between a man and a woman believe that is because by so doing it stays as a child-centered institution and not one that’s concentrated on the desires of adults. And if marriage is redefined to be about any two adults who are in love or committed to each other and it’s about adults and not the kids that flow from procreative relationships, then from a policy standpoint you have to ask the question, then why can’t three or more adults be just as loving and committed to each other?”

The people who would wish to redefine marriage would indeed ask that question, and they already have.

The debate moderator followed up to that by asking, “In a number of countries in the world where Islam is the dominant religion polygamy is permitted. So why wouldn’t just on First Amendment grounds, the freedom of religion, polygamy then be something that people would pursue?”

After all, The “prophet”  Mohammad married the 6-year-old ‘Aisha.  According to the Sahih Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 62, Number 65, “Narrated ‘Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old.”

What IS marriage anymore? If it is for procreation then how can a 6 year old conceive? If it is for pedophilia, then Islam has it covered well, don’t you think?  This was reported a few days ago in the UK Telegraph:

“Alarm as hundreds of children under age of 10 married in Iran”
“Iran has experienced a dramatic growth in under-age marriages that has seen the number of girls being wed before the age of 10 double in the space of a year, officially-compiled figures have revealed.”

Defenders of homosexual marriage say that child-marriage (AKA legislated pedophilia) would not happen because gay marriage is not predicated on a religious liberty, but public policy and a civil “right.” But that very redefinition is happening.

It is increasingly obvious that marriage is being redefined, and with it, fidelity, morality, family, and parenting. The California State Assembly has put forward a bill allowing a child to have more than two parents.

Christians are mocked and scorned for stating that such a redefinition not only pokes God in the eye, but that moving the God-given lines of His intended foundational block of society releases sinful man to include all sorts of heinous configurations into ‘marriage’. Skeptical? Shariah Law has led to the legislation of child marriage in 6 countries. (source). Christians warned that homosexual redefinitions of marriage would also lead to polygamy and bestiality but of course we were soundly pooh-poohed. Yet, “comedian” Sarah Silverman’s season finale of her television show featured her own marriage to her dog. This British woman married a dolphin. And we even have people marrying themselves,  as documented in China and in the US!

So if marriage between one man and one woman is suspended, so as to include two men or two women, the self, or an animal, what is to stop the next minority group to challenge THAT definition, and advocate for codification of any number of participants, of any age, or between any species? Nothing. Indeed, South Africa is the only nation in Africa to constitutionally recognize homosexual marriage and SA also recognizes polygamy, too. Are these two redefinitions of traditional marriage linked? Of course they are.

So today we discover that conservative Brazil has allowed its first registered and official polygamous marriage.

Controversy in Brazil as first three-partner marriage is unveiled
“Controversy has been sparked as the first civil union between three separate partners was registered in Tupã, in the Northwestern region of Sao Paulo state, Brazil last week. The three-person union has shocked religious groups in the country, and sparked further concerns that the traditional family unit is being further eroded by the current day society. The actual declaration of the union between the man and two women was in fact made three months ago, but it finally became public this week.” [HT Do Not Be Surprised]

The article continues, reporting, “Notary officer, Claudia do Nascimento Domingues, has explained that the three partners lived together and wanted to publicly declare their status in order to guarantee their rights. Checks were conducted to see if there was any legal impediment to the unions and the notary office has confirmed that none were found. Attorney Nathaniel Batista dos Santos Junior oversaw the legal process of creating the three-way declaration.”

No legal definition had been previously necessary because who would have thought even a few years ago that marriage definitions would be under such attack? But such an attack makes logical sense. According to this excerpt from Focus on the Family’s essay “The Divine Order to Marriage,”

“And the spark, the power of that union is meant to gloriously reveal the very image of God to angels and archangels and all the company of heaven and earth. That is why Satan fights tooth and nail to pervert and distort rightly ordered human sexuality, holy matrimony, the family, and fatherhood in particular. In fact, the amount of time and effort that Satan expends to destroy the image of God reflected in marriage, fatherhood and human sexuality is a barometer of just how incredibly important it is to God’s plan and the expression of His glory.”

His glory is the main point of the world, our lives, and the plan of salvation. His glory is exhibited in His name, His majesty, His holiness, His works, His power, and His ordinances. (Deuteronomy 28; Nehemiah 9:5; Job 37:22; Psalms 93; Psalms 104:1; Psalms 145:5; Psalms 145; Exodus 15:1; Exodus 15; Psalms 19; Psalms 111; Exodus 15; Jude 1:7).

“Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.” (Psalms 138:5). His glory is expressed through a traditional marriage, united under covenant with Him and persevering in love and submission throughout the decades. Stay true to your spouse, for in so doing you are at once showing God’s glory and striking a blow against satan!

Posted in bible, drought, heat, oklahoma, wildfires

What happens when the earth’s people refuse God’s Living Water?

Posted on by elizabethprata

“It’s raining ashes in Tulsa.”

That was the tweet from a Christian sister who lives in Oklahoma. Wildfires have struck that state the last few days and there is much damage.

We’re scorched from one end of the nation to the other. We are experiencing heat, drought, fires, ash, dust, dryness and thirst…

Why is this? Because our hearts are hot for satan, we’re drought-ridden from not being in the Word, and our consciences are seared as if with a hot iron. So it is no wonder, my glorious God, that You manifest on the outside what is on the inside of your people. You are the Living Water, but we refuse it. You are the refreshing dew but we don’t want it. You give to us that is athirst the fountain of the water of life freely but we turn away. (Revelation 21:6).

“but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ( John 4:14 ).

But your people say NO!

“Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.”
(Haggai 1:10)

Corn plants damaged by extreme heat and drought conditions
in Carmi, Illinois. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg. source
I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” (Isaiah 5:6)
Marion Kujawa looks over a pond he uses to water the cattle on his farm
on in Ashley, Ill. Kujawa has been digging the pond deeper after it
began to dry up during the current drought.
“The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.” (Deuteronomy 28:24)
In Luther, Okla., at least two dozen homes, a day care center and
other businesses have been destroyed by a wind-driven fire. source

Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke. (Isaiah 9:18)
A horse, which was eventually rescued, tries to escape
a wildfire Friday in central Oklahoma. Photo: Jerry Laizure, AP. source

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2:13).
Medina County: cisterns drying up in drought. source

I like to see the metaphors in how the LORD presents Himself to us. One of those ways is as the Living water, refreshing rain, a fountain of truth. Water, water, water. I also like to see His promises. We often focus on the ‘good’ promises, of eternal life, treasure in heaven, unconditional love. But He made other promises too. Like this one that He promises His people the Jews-

“If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments…Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase.”  (Leviticus 26:3,4)

Although our covenant with Him as the grafted-in Gentiles is not the same as the covenant above, the principles are the same. We are still to walk in His ways and follow His statutes. If we do, then another of His promises will be fulfilled:

“And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” (Isaiah 58:11).

Barnes’ Notes closes beautifully with an explanation of the Isaiah verse above. Man, those 1800’s writers could write:

“But in the supplies which God makes for his people there is no such deception. The fountains of pardon, peace, and joy are ever open and ever full. The streams of salvation are always flowing. The weary pilgrim may go there at any season of the year, and from any part of a desolate world, and find them always full, refreshing, and free. However far may be the pilgrimage to them from amidst the waste and burning climes of sin, however many come to slake their thirst, and however frequently they come, they find them always the same. They never fail; and they will continue to flow on to the end of time.”