Category: encouragement

Posted in encouragement, narrow gate

There is only one way to heaven

Posted on by elizabethprata
EPrata photo

Whatever a fundamentalist is these days, I’m often “accused” of being one. We know that to the world, “Fundies say the darnedest things” and I’ve been quoted on that so-named forum more than once. The world points to biblical Christians as narrow minded, bigoted, closed minded, or myriad of other epithets to indicate that we need to be accepting, tolerant, and broad minded, especially of ‘all religions.’

This gentleman, Glenn Beauchemin, made the following remark just yesterday on Facebook: “The Fundies have little room in their hearts for a good man like this [the Pope] and even less room in their minds.”

We have all the room that is possible to have for a man like that, because there but for the grace of God, go us. We love our fellow man enough to witness to the power of Jesus to turn a heart of stone like the Pope’s into a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26).

There aren’t any “good men.” There aren’t even ‘all religions.’ There are only two. Much about the Christian life is very stark and clear. It is either-or. Heaven or hell. World vs Christian. Unforgiven sinner or forgiven sinner. In fact, being “narrow minded,” at least where the Bible and the Lord’s commands come in, is a good thing.

Satan will mimic, counterfeit, masquerade and plain just lie as to the way to heaven.

In a recent sermon about heaven John MacArthur delivered to an audience of youths, he drew on the Bible to show just how narrow the way is and how wide is the gulf between the two worlds. This sharp divide of either/or, in or out, is discussed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Jesus used several metaphors to draw the distinction between the two ways. MacArthur explained:

Strive to enter the narrow gate. What is this talking about? What does it mean to strive to enter the narrow gate? … As we come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount there is a series of contrasts. 

Two gates, wide and narrow
Two ways, broad and narrow
Two destinies, life and destruction
Two crowds, many and few
Two trees, one good, one corrupt
Two fruits, one good and one bad
Two behaviors, saying and doing
Two builders, wise and foolish
Two foundations, rock and sand
Two houses, one stands and one falls

If being narrow-minded means ONLY accepting the Lord’s truth and not all the world’s, I will gladly accept the description. If being too narrow means I am on the Lord’s narrow road, I am grateful. If I am in the crowd of few and not many, then all is well.

How many entrances do we need? One is all it takes, and for Jesus, it took a lot. He lived a scrupulously sinless life. He suffered the indignity of humiliation on the cross. He bore all the punishment and wrath for sin into His very self, and He endured the agonizing separation from His Father for the first time in all eternity. He did this to make a way for us to enter through Him.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. (Matthew 7:13)

The door is narrow, but it is sufficient.

Posted in creation, encouragement, fall, God, seasons

First day of fall: God’s glory in creation continues to awe

Posted on by elizabethprata

The next three months are among my favorites of the year. The hot-hot-hot summer is done. The sticky humidity is over. The skies have cleared of that summer haze, and the stars are again bright at night. There is a new vigor and freshness of the days and a crispness to the evening where it feels just so good to draw up your blanket and cuddle.

The Lord ordained the seasons in their progressions since the very beginnings. The cycle is one that is both useful and beautiful. He could have made everything gray and rectangular. But He didn’t. The diversity of foods, lands, stars, trees, and seasonal changes is gloriously gorgeous. The display of leaves during fall, the harvest bounty, the stars glittering above in the clear night sky…all useful,yes, for signs and growing and timing … but beautiful too.

Our God is creative and His works are to be praised.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, (Genesis 1:14)

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22)

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. (Psalm 104:19)

Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. (Exodus 34:21)

He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. (Psalm 147:16)

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Posted in children, divorce, encouragement, love

An Eloquent Six-Year-Old Gives Her Mother a Meaningful Lesson About Staying Friends After Divorce

Posted on by elizabethprata

From the Laughing Squid.

The Bible talks about having the faith of a child.

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:2-6)

See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 18:10)

Matthew Henry explains the concepts here:

Christ spoke many words of his sufferings, but only one of his glory; yet the disciples fasten upon that, and overlook the others. Many love to hear and speak of privileges and glory, who are willing to pass by the thoughts of work and trouble. Our Lord set a little child before them, solemnly assuring them, that unless they were converted and made like little children, they could not enter his kingdom. Children, when very young, do not desire authority, do not regard outward distinctions, are free from malice, are teachable, and willingly dependent on their parents. It is true that they soon begin to show other dispositions, and other ideas are taught them at an early age; but these are marks of childhood, and render them proper emblems of the lowly minds of true Christians. Surely we need to be daily renewed in the spirit of our minds, that we may become simple and humble, as little children, and willing to be the least of all. Let us daily study this subject, and examine our own spirits.

With that in mind, here a 6 year old girl gives her mom a wake up call and a life after her parents were divorced. Cherish Sherry recorded her daughter Tiana’s important message and posted it on her Fcebook page. It was picked up by other media in the last few days since the initial posting.

I’m so glad she recorded it. Little Tiana spoke of humility, of exalting the other. She spoke of friendship, and having a heart of love among family members. She said a world without love and friendliness would be overrun with people who are simply monsters. What good is it to live in a world of monsters, without love? Her point was love begins in the home, with extending one’s self toward the other and not lording it over. She reminded her mother that her dad was still her father, and not to be mean.

This family is not Christian I don’t think, but these are biblical concepts the girl is speaking of.

God hates divorce. But when it happens, the little ones sometimes must step in with insight and the faith of a child.

May the Lord bless all the children. This sinful world is hard on them.

Posted in bible, encouragement, gracious, women

The View’s women: noisy & clamorous, shameful & infamous

Posted on by elizabethprata
Source- ScriptureByPicture.com

The television network ABC has produced for the last 18 years, a show called “The View.” The show is a talk show with an all-female panel discussing news, politics and cultural events of the day. Initially, veteran journalist Barbara Walters was the main host. The show has since rotated different women on and off, each panel becoming more strident than the last. It is a fair thing to say the show is hosted by cantankerous and quarrelsome women. It is an unattractive show.

I have seen the show once or twice. I don’t watch it because I have a severe distaste for programming that includes yelling, and that is pretty much all these women do.

The show’s blurb is: “Created in 1997 by veteran journalist Barbara Walters, “The View” is a daytime talk show hosted by women — Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Candace Cameron Bure, Michelle Collins, Paula Faris and Raven-Symoné — and each offers her take on the day’s news during the opening “Hot Topics” segment. Later, the ladies welcome various celebrities, who join them in a chat or perform for the audience. The program also offers tips on beauty, fashion, diet and relationships. Known for their freewheeling style, the hosts are often lampooned in late-night sketches.” (source)

This week, two of the panelists commented on a contestant in the Miss America pageant. The contestant they mocked was representing Colorado. During the talent portion of the pageant, Miss Colorado appeared in her nurse’s scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck and delivered an original monologue relating her experience working a particular Alzheimer’s patient.

The two women on the show mainly involved in the mocking were Joy Behar and Michelle Collins. They mocked the woman’s ‘lack of talent’ and her choice to relate her professional experience. They mocked her scrubs. They mocked her stethoscope. They mocked her profession.

Collins’ and Behars’s remarks became controversial and five advertisers have since withdrawn support on the show.

The controversial comments made by Behar and Collins came in response to Sunday’s 2016 Miss America pageant featuring Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson, whose talent consisted of a monologue about being a nurse. The next day, Behar said she did not consider the monologue a legitimate talent, and appeared ill-informed on the nursing profession as a whole. (source)

Feminism has done women no favors by insisting they must have a loud voice in the public realms. (I am not saying woman cannot speak publicly.) However what I am saying is that a continual pattern of strident, loud opinionated screeching in public does not become a woman. Many people, including myself, are turned off by watching such behavior. Let’s see what the Bible has to say about quarrelsome females.

It is better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman. (Proverbs 21:19)

 A continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are alike;  (Proverbs 27:15)

Gill’s- and a contentious woman are alike; troublesome and uncomfortable; as in a rainy day, a man cannot go abroad with any pleasure, and if the rain is continually dropping upon him in his house he cannot sit there with any comfort; and so a contentious woman, that is always scolding and brawling, a man has no comfort at home; and if he goes abroad he is jeered and laughed at on her account by others; and perhaps she the more severely falls upon him when he returns for having been abroad;

to restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in one’s right hand. (Proverbs 27:16)

Gill’s -Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind,…. Whoever attempts to stop her brawls and contentions, to repress and restrain them, and hinder her voice being heard in the streets, and endeavours to hide the shame that comes upon herself and family, attempts a thing as impossible as to hide the wind in the palm of a man’s hand, or to stop it from blowing; for as that, by being restrained or pent up by any methods that can be used, makes the greater noise, so, by all the means that are used to still a contentious woman, she is but the more noisy and clamorous, and becomes more shameful and infamous;

It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife. (Proverbs 21:9)

Gill’s- It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop,…. The roofs of houses in Judea were that, encompassed with battlements, whither persons might retire for solitude, and sit in safety: and it is better to be in a corner of such a roof alone, and be exposed to scorching heat, to blustering winds, to thunder storms and showers of rain, than with a brawling woman in a wide house; large and spacious, full of rooms,

Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion. (Proverbs 11:22)

Pulpit Commentary- So is a fair woman which is without discretion; without taste, deprived of the faculty of saying and doing what is seemly and fitting. The external beauty of such a woman is as incongruous as a precious ring in the snout of a pig.

The Bible on having a bitter tongue:

Hide me from the secret counsel of evildoers, From the tumult of those who do iniquity, 3Who have sharpened their tongue like a sword. They aimed bitter speech as their arrow, (Psalm 64:2-3)

Brawling women are not easy to live with (Proverbs 21:9; 25:24).

Angry women are never good company (Proverbs 21:19).

The Bible on speaking defilements:

It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person. (Matthew 15:11)

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. (James 3:6)

The Bible on how women are to conduct themselves is also equally clear.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, (Titus 2:3)

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:6. This verse is aimed at both genders. This is a good, short essay.)

Gracious women retain their honor. (Proverbs 11:16)

The women on The View can’t help being strident, loud, obnoxious, or shameful (perhaps with the exception of Candace Cameron Bure, who is a Christian, one who unfortunately is partnering with darkness though by being a panelist on the show). This is because the Bible says–

But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3:8).

Only with the help of the Holy Spirit in us with the new creation being sanctified can a person hope to tame the tongue. The Bible says much about the tongue, pro and con, male and female. It is a big subject.

Meanwhile, if you watch The View, I’d hope that you would reconsider, it isn’t edifying to the Lord to participate in these women’s shameful acts and support their bitter tongue. I don’t watch the show but I will keep these women in mind when I am about to speak-ill advisedly or ungraciously. It isn’t attractive, but gracious speech most certainly IS.

Posted in encouragement, glory, jesus, new jerusalem

Heaven: The New Jerusalem – our future home

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve been writing about heaven. Included under the generic umbrella of “heaven” are the terms, Paradise, Abraham’s Bosom, Millennium Kingdom, and New Jerusalem. Today I’d like to examine New Jerusalem. The following are quotes from the GotQuestions article “What is the New Jerusalem?” Here at the beginning of their article, we find many terms for the New Jerusalem, which is a city, it’s in heaven, and is also heaven itself. See? The topic of heaven is not as simple as one would expect, but is always glorious to study.

The New Jerusalem, which is also called the Tabernacle of God, the Holy City, the City of God, the Celestial City, the City Foursquare, and Heavenly Jerusalem, is literally heaven on earth. It is referred to in the Bible in several places (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 11:10; 12:22–24; and 13:14), but it is most fully described in Revelation 21.

Please read Revelation 21, it is a short chapter, but too long to post entirely. Every Christian knows that upon our death or at the rapture if we’re living, we go meet Jesus instantly and are given glorified bodies. Our abode will be New Jerusalem, which is presently in heaven. John MacArthur calls it the “Capital City of Heaven.” It is a city, with specific dimensions and specific adornments and specific inhabitants. It is not ethereal. It is real, physical, and it is our destination! Here is a chronology of when and where this magnificent city appears.

In Revelation 21, the recorded history of man is at its end. All of the ages have come and gone. Christ has gathered His church in the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:15–17). The Tribulation has passed (Revelation 6—18). The battle of Armageddon has been fought and won by our Lord Jesus Christ (Revelation 19:17–21). Satan has been chained for the 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth (Revelation 20:1–3). A new, glorious temple has been established in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40—48). The final rebellion against God has been quashed, and Satan has received his just punishment, an eternity in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7–10.) The Great White Throne Judgment has taken place, and mankind has been judged (Revelation 20:11–15).

In Revelation 21:1 God does a complete make-over of heaven and earth (Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:12–13). The new heaven and new earth are what some call the “eternal state” and will be “where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). After the re-creation, God reveals the New Jerusalem. John sees a glimpse of it in his vision: “The Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Revelation 21:2). This is the city that Abraham looked for in faith (Hebrews 11:10). It is the place where God will dwell with His people forever (Revelation 21:3). Inhabitants of this celestial city will have all tears wiped away (Revelation 21:4).

The New Jerusalem will be fantastically huge. John records that the city is nearly 1,400 miles long, and it is as wide and as high as it is long—a perfect cube (Revelation 21:15–17). The city will also be dazzling in every way. It is lighted by the glory of God (verse 23). Its twelve foundations, bearing the names of the twelve apostles, are “decorated with every kind of precious stone” (verse 19). It has twelve gates, each a single pearl, bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel (verses 12 and 21). The street will be made of pure gold (verse 21).

I can’t imagine this! The street of gold (street singular, not streets plural), the Tree of Life, the magnificent River of Life (Revelation 22:1-2), the light of His glory… Wow!

The Holy City in heaven is hinted at in John 14:3,

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

New Jerusalem is the place He has been preparing. Imagine living in a place specially designed just for us, He who knows the heart. Our individual abodes will be perfectly suited to each one of us, and it will be bright with sinless glory of the Lamb.

Here is a verse which describes the beauty-

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. (Revelation 21:10-11).

New Jerusalem, by Gustave Dore

Being able not only to view God’s glory but live in it is a mind-altering and an exceedingly shattering concept. His gifts to us are truly boundless.

Let’s imagine it on a more personal level for a moment. Imagine a beggar like Lazarus in Luke 16, begging outside your gate. The man is filthy, and his hair is crawling with bugs. He has open sores, pus filled dripping sores. His skin is grimy with human oils and ground-in dirt from the streets. He drools, and his face is covered with snot on which the flies land and cannot escape. “Gross” doesn’t even begin to describe this filthy person.

That is how we look to Jesus, mired in our sin. Worse even. (Genesis 6:5)

Now imagine that you bring this person inside your home and wrap your baby’s innocent and clean blanket on him and hug him and invite him to stay in your home.

This is a pale shadow of how it is that Jesus could look down from heaven and see us, sin covered filthy rags, bones full of poison and mouths full of pollution, and clean us and wrap us and invite us to stay with Him inside His clean and innocent home- The New Jerusalem.

It is encouraging to think of the glories that await in New Jerusalem, AKA heaven, AKA the Holy City, AKA the Bride Adorned. It is also sweet to read Revelation and receive the promised blessing. Reading it gives us a blessing the verse says (Revelation 1:3) and I personally believe the blessing to the one who reads the book is …. the deeper knowledge of Jesus, and the lengths to which He has gone to provide for us a home in glory.

Again, read Revelation. Ponder His promises about the future home He has prepared for us. He has prepared another home, you know. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41). Its mouth was enlarged to receive sinners. (Isaiah 5:14). Yet He chose to redeem some from their sins, and that is us, His bride. We will live in beauty, perfection, glory. And all due to Jesus, because HE descended to live among polluted and depraved people. He lived perfectly, was innocent of all charges but was executed in humiliation anyway. He absorbed all God’s wrath for sinners, taking on to Himself OUR punishment, and then was laid in a grave not even his own but was someone else’s. He rose to heaven and has ever since, been interceding for us at the altar of God, he has prayed for us, sent angels to us, given us His Spirit, and has prepared a place for us to dwell in comfort and love.

Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, who says they “want more” is insane. Anyone who says they “don’t have the time nor time inclination” to contend for the faith He delivered is profoundly malevolent. Jesus gave us all this and more, He gave us Himself.

O brethren, read Revelation. It ends well. It really ends very well. It is well with our souls.

——————————-

Further Reading

Heaven series by John MacArthur 1: What Heaven Is
Heaven series by John MacArthur 2: What Heaven is, and What it is Like
Heaven series by John MacArthur 3: The New Jerusalem

Posted in abraham's bosom, encouragement, jesus, paradise, resurrection

What is Heaven? Part 1- Abraham’s Bosom and Paradise

Posted on by elizabethprata

Yesterday I’d remarked about the article The Atlantic wrote about the movie 90 Minutes in Heaven. The author had said that the movie offered so few details regarding Christian heaven the movie was almost a metaphor.

The subject of heaven is often overlooked, or if it is studied, it presents errors like we all float around on insubstantial clouds playing harps.

The biblical record doesn’t gush effusively about heaven, but it does offer concrete details. It is an important study to undertake, because after all, it’s where the righteous dead will dwell for all eternity. More importantly, it is our home already, we are citizens of heaven.

The Bible uses different names for the place where God dwells. Heaven is a term that has come to mean a catch-all for the place where the righteous dwell. There is Abraham’s Bosom, Paradise, present heaven, the Millennial Kingdom, future heaven, New Jerusalem, and the eternal state. And what are the three heavens? Paul was taken up to the Third Heaven. While some of these are nicknames, these different places are real and exist for different reasons and at different times.
Scripture refers to heaven as God’s habitation but also uses the term as an alternative for God himself. Manser, M. H. Dictionary of Bible Themes.
The three heavens are easy to define. The First Heaven is the earth’s atmosphere, where the birds fly, clouds scud, and wind blows. The Second Heaven is space. It’s where the planets are, the stars, asteroids, black holes, and all the rest. The Third Heaven where Paul was taken, (2 Corinthians 12:2) is where God is.

No one knows where Third Heaven is, if it is another dimension, or some place way out there, or what. But it is definitely where God is and it is definitely a real place. God’s temple is there, the altar is there, the angels come and go, His throne is there, His glory is there, prayers ascend to there, prophets have seen visions of there, and much more. It is a busy place. Read Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, and Revelation 4. But studying actual heaven is for another day. Let’s look at what the term “Abraham’s Bosom” means.

Do the Terms “Abraham’s Bosom” and “Paradise” Refer to Heaven or Somewhere Else? (Luke 16:22)

Abraham’s bosom. This same expression (found only here in Scripture) was used in the Talmud as a figure for heaven. The idea was that Lazarus was given a place of high honor, reclining next to Abraham at the heavenly banquet.

So it’s a nickname.

So what is “Paradise?”

In order to answer that I need to talk about hell a bit.

Illustration by Fred Overton of Frank Overton Seminars

I’m actually going to talk about 4 places: Hell AKA Hades, Paradise, Heaven, and the Abyss.

Since time immemorial, when someone died, they were buried. They were either put into a hole in the ground, or mummified under a pyramid, or into a cave, or under rocks as a cairn. This is called “the grave” and it’s where the dead body goes. Where the soul then goes is the point of the study.

Prior to the crucifixion, all the dead souls went to the same place. In Hebrew it’s Sheol and in Greek it’s Hades. It was a place that is referred to as “down”, and was split by a great gulf, as the rich man said in Luke 16:26.

One side of this place called Sheol or Hades is where the unrighteous dead go, as the rich man unfortunately discovered. It’s hot and the fire is a torment, as again the rich man said. (All this is in Luke 16).

The other side of the place is nicknamed Abraham’s Bosom, or Paradise. That’s where Lazarus went, the story goes. It’s where all the righteous dead went (remember, this is prior to the crucifixion). All the OT saints, and people who died during the Incarnation went there. It was a pleasant place of rest and comfort. Between them is a great gulf, fixed, so no person may cross from one side to the other. You can read all this in Luke 16:19-31.

So we have the lock-up Abyss where the unholy angels are chained, (Jude 1:6; 2 Peter 2:4), Hell/Hades where the unrighteous dead are, and Paradise. Now, after Jesus descended to the abyss and preached to the demons, then spent 40 days on earth topside teaching His apostles, then Jesus rose to heaven. As He rose, He emptied Paradise and took all the righteous dead with Him to heaven, where they still dwell. (Eph 4:8).

Now, when someone in the faith dies, they don’t go to Abraham’s bosom/Paradise any more which is down, as Jesus had told the thief on the cross, but they go to heaven which is up. The blood of Jesus & His resurrection made it possible.

Though be advised some disagree on the location and use of the term Paradise. MacArthur says it is an error to interpret the Luke 16 passage about the Rich Man and Lazarus being in proximity to each other with a gulf between, yet S. Lewis Johnson interprets Luke 16 as depicted in the above illustration by Fred Overton, who obviously interprets it that way too. I agree with Johnson. So you can see that it is a complicated subject.

However no one in either heaven or hell/Hades has their glorified body yet. At the rapture, the saints will get their glorified body. However the unrighteous dead will still wait for their body, not that they can complain. The unrighteous dead all be resurrected after the Millennial Kingdom, judged at the Great White Throne judgment, receive their eternal body that will for their eternal punishment, and be cast into the Lake of Fire. Death and Hell will be thrown in there too. The eternal state will begin. (There is no such thing as soul sleep at any time nor is there any such thing as soul annihilation. The Bible teaches neither).

Here is an excerpt from S. Lewis Johnson’s sermon “Death and Afterwards“.

Now with the experience of Jesus Christ, things change. With the experience of Jesus Christ we have an apparently quite an important transformation of one aspect of Sheol. Remember the Lord Jesus when he died descended into the lower parts of the earth. I’m going to ask you if you will to turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Now it is impossible for us to do justice to this great passage. Let me just suggest to you the things that it seems to mean. Now the apostle is speaking about the gifts of the risen Christ. He says in the 7th verse, “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, (or as Weymouth renders it, ‘he led captive a host of captives) and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)”do 

Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth. Apparently paradise was located in Hades as a separate compartment. When the death of Christ occurred and he went to the realm of the dead and gave his message of doom to the opponents of the gospel of Christ, he took the believers with him, and he took paradise. And now paradise is in the third heaven, as Paul says, and it is up. And so a tremendous change has taken place in paradise as a result of the ministry of the Lord Jesus. So paradise is relocated.

It’s a rich, full, complicated topic, this concept of Abraham’s Bosom & Paradise. There was much more to it than one would think!

The bottom line is that where Christ is, is Paradise.

————————————-

Where did Jesus go after He died?

THE THIEF ON THE CROSS, PARADISE and the place of the dead

Heaven introduction

Heaven part 2 Millennium Kingdom

Posted in 90 minutes in heaven, encouragement, thomas watson

What is heaven?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Heaven part 1 Abraham’s Bosom & Paradise

Heaven part 2 Millennium Kingdom

The Atlantic wrote an article about the spate of Christian movies lately. They focused on the most recent release on September 11 of the movie based on Don Piper’s book, 90 Minutes in Heaven.

Only think about it, Piper didn’t spend 90 minutes in (alleged) heaven, he was “there” only a minute. According to his story, he spent most of the time outside the ‘gate’ hobnobbing with his welcoming committee. But I digress.

The Atlantic article was interestingly titled. “How Heaven Became a Secular Word“. More on that in a moment. In the article, the writer said something about the movie 90 Minutes in Heaven that I thought was funny. She had spent some time in her opening describing the lead actress and relating quotes from the interview with her. The author had asked the actress if working on the movie made her think about heaven more. Then the article goes into the meat of the point it wants to make. The movie is:

“at least somewhat based on those described in the Christian scriptures, but they’re light on concrete details—Jesus, for example, is nowhere to be found.”

Any “heaven” that is absent Jesus is not heaven. Scriptures make that very clear. (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23). The point was, the movie is SO light on details that:

The heaven of 90 Minutes is more than a metaphor, but just barely.

LOL, the movie was so light on details, so ephemeral, so insubstantial in detailing this very real place most of humanity aspires to, that it is barely more than a metaphor. Sadly though, in addition to being funny phrasing, recognizing that the movie is barely more than a metaphor is an actual tragedy. Why? Heaven is a concrete place, described in real terms in the bible. And despite the fact that most of humanity aspires to a restful and happy place after death, few will find it. (Matthew 7:14).

The lead actress worked on the movie for months, delving into the subject matter at hand, as actors and actresses do, but came away with not one whit more of an understanding of what heaven is, than she had before. When asked what she thought heaven would be like, she responded:

“I would love to have either Mike waiting for me or me waiting for Mike with our dogs running around—I mean, that’s heaven, you know?” she said. “Whatever heaven is for each individual, that would certainly be it for me.” This sense of a vague, happy afterlife, filled with romping animals and loving relationships, is the one embraced by 90 Minutes in Heaven.

What a shame. A man-centered, felt needs kind of heaven. She will be occupied with her Lord, her Groom, not longing for her husband, because there is no marriage in heaven. (Matthew 22:30). As for the felt-needs aspects, Billy Graham also happens to believe this kind of heaven is heaven. Marshall Frady wrote of him in his book Billy Graham: A Parable of American Righteousness:

Even during his crusades, according to Frady, Graham would return from playing nine holes to dictate that evening’s sermon. Graham even exclaimed about Heaven, “Boy, I sure hope they have a golf course up there!”

Worse, is this quote from Ken Garfield’s biography of Graham, Billy Graham: A Life in Pictures, where Graham said that “Somebody once asked me, ‘Will there be golf courses in heaven?’ I said, ‘If they’re necessary for our happiness, they’ll be there.’”

Is THAT what heaven is, a personal, felt-needs kind of heaven where if you love dogs, you get dogs, and if you love golf, you get golf? No. Most assuredly no.

The subsequent parts of this essay will examine two concepts.
1. What is the purpose of heaven?
2. What is heaven like?

Heaven is a place where all our needs are met in One Person: Jesus. HE is what he had needed all along. Heaven is the place where our chief end of even having been born will come to perfect fruition. Puritan Thomas Watson describes the chief end of man, which is fulfilled in the eternal state, commonly (but incorrectly) stated as “heaven.”

Question. 1. What is the chief end of man?
Answer. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. Here are two ends of life specified.

1. The glorifying of God.
First. The glorifying of God, 1 Pet. 4:11. “That God in all things may be glorified.” The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. l Cor. 10:31.

“Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; now, man being a rational creature, must propose some end to himself, and that should be, that he may lift up God in the world. He had better lose his life than the end of his living. The great truth asserted is that the end of every man’s living should be to glorify God. Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father who gave us life; God the Son, who lost his life for us; and God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory to the whole Trinity.

2. The enjoying of God.

This brings us to the second thing: 2nd. The enjoyment of God in the life to come. Man’s chief end is to enjoy God forever. Before the plenary fruition of God in heaven, there must be something previous and antecedent; and that is our being in a state of grace. We must have conformity to him in grace, before we can have communion with him in glory. Grace and glory are linked and chained together. Grace precedes glory, as the morning star ushers in the sun. God will have us qualified and fitted for a state of blessedness. Drunkards and swearers are not fit to enjoy God in glory; the Lord will not lay such vipers in his bosom.

Only “the pure in heart shall see God.” We must first be, as the king’s daughter, glorious within, before we are clothed with the robes of glory. As King Ahasuerus first caused the virgins to be purified and anointed, and they had their sweet odours to perfume them, and then went to stand before the king, Esth. 2:12, so must we have the anointing of God, and be perfumed with the graces of the Spirit, those sweet odours, and then we shall stand before the king of heaven. Being thus divinely qualified by grace, we shall be taken up to the mount of vision, and enjoy God for ever; and what is enjoying God for ever but to be put in a state of happiness?

As the body cannot have life but by having communion with the soul, so the soul cannot have blessedness but by having immediate communion with God. God is the summum bonum, the chief good; therefore the enjoyment of him is the highest felicity.

Do you see anything in Watson’s explanation, and you can be assured it is but a minute part (the entire sermon is 16 full pages) about having your own personal golf course? About romping around outside with your husband, when we all know from scripture there is no marriage in heaven? (Matthew 22:30). Watson had said:

The great truth asserted is that the end of every man’s living should be to glorify God.

And by His grace we are given an eternal living, then that means our entire eternal life will be one where He receives His due worship. It means we have the privilege of glorifying Him in perfected body (Philippians 3:21) and proclaiming His majesty from pure lips. (Zephaniah 3:9).

So…what is heaven like? Is there anything concrete about this future swelling place we can read about? Yes.

Just as the word hell has come to mean a catch-all for the place where the wicked dwell, heaven has come to mean a catch-all for the place where the righteous dwell. But there is hell, Hades, Sheol, the abyss, Gehenna, and the Lake of Fire. Some of these existed for different reasons and at different times and at different locations. Some are nicknames. Alternately, there is Abraham’s Bosom, Paradise, present heaven, the Millennial Kingdom, future heaven, New Jerusalem, and the eternal state. These exist for different reasons and at different times. Some are nicknames.

However! Heaven is not a secular word. It is a real place with real redeemed people and it is where we are headed if we are one of His. This week, I’ll look at one of these biblical terms per day and explore what they mean and what the bible says about them.

  • Paradise/Abraham’s Bosom
  • Millennial kingdom
  • Heaven
  • New Jerusalem
  • The Eternal State

Be encouraged now, however. Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and this means our citizenship is in heaven! No matter what you call it, when we depart this earth, we will be glorifying God, and enjoying Him for ever!

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Heaven part 1 Abraham’s Bosom & Paradise

Heaven part 2 Millennium Kingdom

Posted in depravity, encouragement, sin, tulip

Total depravity in a baby

Posted on by elizabethprata
Wikimedia Commons

I remember very shortly after being saved I was witnessing to a friend. She was the kind of person who was ‘rational’, ‘logical’ and ‘mathematical.’ Since Paul witnessed to Gentiles by starting with the creation, I did too. Sadly, she dismissed Genesis’ creation account because obviously, the light being created as Genesis 1:3 could not have come before the sun’s creation, as Genesis 1:14. Obviously. Therefore the creation account must be wrong.

So I skipped ahead and told her about Eve’s and Adam’s sin in the garden. I shared that after the sin had occurred, their very biology was now polluted and cursed, and all subsequent children, such as murderous Cain, were totally depraved since birth. Therefore we do not do right and are excluded from God’s heaven- unless we repent and ask Jesus to forgive.

That didn’t get a logical reaction. It got an emotional one. She heatedly rejected the notion that children and babies are totally depraved. She fervently argued against the concept that babies and children naturally do wrong. Even associating the word sin with baby caused a visceral reaction in her.

EPrata photo

That was 11 years ago and I never forgot.

First some definitions. Total depravity does not mean that everyone, including children, are as bad as they can be all the time. There’s your Hitlers and there’s your Mother Teresas. Both are in hell now BTW.

Total depravity is about the original sin and how it affects us today. It speaks to the extent of our sin, our sin nature, and our complete inability to do anything for God that will be pleasing to Him. Some people such as John MacArthur prefer the term “absolute inability” rather than total depravity.  John MacArthur said of the concept,

“…we are so hopelessly and thoroughly wicked that not one of us could ever truly love God unless God Himself enabled us to do so. That is the doctrine of total depravity in a nutshell. It means that we are totally unable to save ourselves.” 

Charles Spurgeon said of total depravity,

By original sin we mean the evil quality which characterizes man’s natural disposition and will. We call this sin of nature original, because each fallen man is born with it, and because it is the source or origin in each man of his actual transgressions. By calling it total, we do not mean that men are from their youth as bad as they can be. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, “deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13). Nor do we mean that they have no social virtues toward their fellowmen in which they are sincere. … What our Confession says is, “That they have wholly lost ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation.”

In 1985 John Piper said of total depravity,

Total Depravity Our sinful corruption is so deep and so strong as to make us slaves of sin and morally unable to overcome our own rebellion and blindness. This inability to save ourselves from ourselves is total. We are utterly dependent on God’s grace to overcome our rebellion, give us eyes to see, and effectively draw us to the Savior

Now, surely babies aren’t totally depraved? They’re so cute and such a blank slate and not even able to comprehend what sin is. Right?

Wrong.

There is a cottage industry of Americas Funniest Videos (AFV) that show the “cute” things babies, toddlers, and kids do. The audience laughs and titters and applauds, and goes “awww.” But it’s not funny. These clips from AFV have been wow-ing and charming and entertaining audiences for 25 years. Yes, AFV is 25 years old. But when I see clips like this, it only makes me sad, because they are a 25 year chronicle of our sin nature.

This clip won. It is in the top pantheon of best loved clips.

Why waste a good tantrum when no one is around to see it?

This toddler is absolutely totally aware of what he is doing. He knows how to present screams and anguish to maximum effect, and knows when it’s useless to continue. He is manipulating the adults. He is lying.

Not so innocent, eh?

But some may protest, how about babies. Little, little babies, they surely don’t know right from wrong. They don’t lie, manipulate, or do things in secret?! How could you think they are totally depraved and have a heart full of sin.

Here, 18-month-old twins play, scream, and jump with each other during nap time. The mom heard the noise and turned on the baby monitor so she could talk to them.

The second the twins hear the mom’s voice, they drop. They know they are supposed to be sleeping and weren’t. They knew they were disobeying the higher authority.

Total depravity is in us, it is our very nature. It goes from corner to corner in all areas of our mind, heart, strength,and soul. There is no “flawed thinking.” There is no untainted corner of our mind whereupon one day we will suddenly become spiritual and be able to retreat to that pure corner and “choose Jesus.” We are fallen creatures completely unable to do right in God’s eyes. We need Him.

Thank God He knows this. God sent His Son to live the life we cannot, due to our complete inability to be righteous. Born of woman and from the Father in heaven, He lived the sinless life we could not. He was hated, spit on, mocked, stripped, beaten and hung from a tree. He endured God’s wrath for sin. He took it- our punishment. Then He died.

Pleased with His Son’s life, and His death, and God’s wrath exhausted upon the Son, He raised Jesus to life and ascended Him to heaven. Now, anyone who cannot and never will do right in God’s eyes, but who are at enmity with Him and are His enemy, can come through the Door, who is Jesus. He is the Door to life, and if confessing and repenting to Jesus, He will forgive and they may enter heaven through Him.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

Our sin nature is so total, even babies show it. But if we have the faith of a child and repent, He will grant everlasting life. He sends the Spirit to dwell in us and give us His power to resist sin. He grows us in Christ’s likeness.

At the resurrection of the saints He will blessedly remove us from the presence of sin. Imagine a world where every conversation will be holy. Where every emotion will be perfect. Where there are no hidden agendas, no secret sins, no hypocrisy. Where we worship Jesus perfectly. Where our motives are pure and no one is manipulated, lied to, or pressured. No depravity, and total ability.

What a day that will be. Thank you Jesus, for saving your elect.

Posted in encouragement, scripture photo

Scripture photo: This old tent groans and goes to work

Posted on by elizabethprata

But until that glorious day, as I prepare for work and my day outside this home, my prayer today is:

Lord, may I honor you in the job you have given me.

I pray this daily. Why every day? Because I must die to self daily.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Lord, I need You. Every hour I need you.