end of days. prophecy

About God and earthquakes

Posted on July 31, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Some time ago there was an earthquake in an area of the US that does not usually have quakes. It was a startling geological event. Thousands poured out into the streets in shock and surprise. The author of the news about it went on to state that, “Any assumption that the region is seismically serene was corrected at 1:51 p.m…”

People are intensely interested in earthquakes, and they know instinctively that quakes somehow relate to God.

If a person is not a believer then they will try to convince themselves that earthquakes are natural happenings based in science where strike-slip quakes or thrust quakes have logical scientific meaning and occur in places where underlying geology supports their particular kind of quake stress relief. And in some sense, quakes are ‘natural’. They are a result of the Fall and the Flood when God rearranged the earth’s continent into separate continents as plates.

Though, scientists cannot and have never been able to figure out why a certain type of quake called deep-focus quakes occur. These are quakes that happen in places where scientifically, none should occur. Note that-

Most earthquakes are shallow. They are concentrated no deeper than 20-25 kilometers down. However, a few extremely deep quakes rumble at depths of about 600 kilometers. Geophysicists are really not certain what causes the very deep quakes, because at 640 kilometers rocks are so hot that they flow rather than snap under geological stresses. The more common, shallow earthquakes are generally created when rocks snap and fracture. source

Anyway, Bible Believers love science but know that God is not beholden to science. If He wants to cause an earthquake, He will. There is no place that is ‘seismically serene.’ There is no place that is ‘aseismic’. I thought it was ironic and amusing when the Powers that Be decided to build a seed vault to store seeds in case of a cataclysm. They spent millions to search for and then build a perfect place that was remote, could be protected, and was safe from earthquakes. They chose Svalbard Norway, atop a tiny rock atop a tiny island in the remote north Atlantic, above the Arctic Circle. Vault scientists and builders looked long and hard for a place where no quakes happen, so the seeds (which they call and ark!) are protected from any future apocalypse). It was supposed to be a “seismically free” zone. The day they opened the vault and had their bigwig ribbon cutting party, there was a huge earthquake. It was the largest in Norway’s history, a 6.2.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault:

“This location was chosen for the express reason that seismic activity rarely if ever occurs there. Earthquakes occur hundreds of miles away on the Norwegian mainland, but they are low in magnitude. The largest one on the mainland [1200 miles away] was 5.4 in 1904 and most eq’s on mainland Norway are less than 4.0. The quake occurred even though the vault’s feasibility study assured that “there is no volcanic or significant seismic activity” in the area.” (source). [underline mine. Source is deleted now and isn’t in the Internet Archive.]

God can cause an earthquake anywhere, any time, of any magnitude. Satan does not cause earthquakes. Nature does not cause earthquakes. There is nothing that happens on the earth that God does not permit. Nothing. There is nothing happening on earth that He does not know about. We read in Luke 12:6-7, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

Earthquakes vary in kind. Some as mentioned are the mysterious deep-focus kind of quakes. There was a deep-focus quake some years ago, in the Philippines. As a matter of fact, there were three high-magnitude deep-focus quakes in fast succession.

Another kind of strange quake was the quake in Florida USA.

Remember the mysterious kind of quake that happened with Korah?

“Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that The Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then The Lord has not sent me. But if The Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated The Lord with contempt.”

“As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!” (Numbers 16:28-34).

This kind of earth opening then closing is reminiscent of an incident that will take place in the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. It is described in Revelation 12:13-16–

“When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.”

Jesus said that there would be earthquakes in diverse places in the Tribulation (Matthew 24:7).

As we see, Jesus has and will continue to cause earthquakes in any location as is suits His plan. He uses them for warnings and as judgments.

In the Tribulation, there will be many earthquakes. They will kill millions. Billions even. A third of the population dies almost immediately and then another third of the remainder are killed by the various judgments. (Not only earthquakes but pestilence, beast, famine, and sword (His for sore judgments; Ezekiel 14:21).

Here are scriptures that show He is in control, He holds the earth with gentle hands as gently as holding a sparrow, knowing even the numbers of hairs on your head, but also showing that He will shake the earth violently to show His displeasure in sin and rebellion against Him. After I read all these I came away with a sense of awe and humility in seeing without a doubt how much He is in control. And yet He loves us. He wants us to dwell with Him in heaven…please repent so that you will be there. Confess to Him that you are a sinner and ask Him to forgive the wrongdoing you’ve engaged in over your lifetime. He will forgive you. He died so that it would be possible. Now He is risen and waiting to hear your confession. Meanwhile, please enjoy these awesome verses illustrating His power on the earth:

GENERAL SCRIPTURES ABOUT QUAKES
Job 9:6
He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble.

Psalm 18:7
The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.

Psalm 46:2
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

Psalm 46:3
though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Psalm 104:32
he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

Nahum 1:5
The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.

VERSES ABOUT QUAKES AS PROPHESIES

Matthew 24
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Revelation 6:12
[The Sixth Seal—Terror ] I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;

Revelation 8:5
Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Revelation 11:13
And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Revelation 11:19
And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Revelation 16:18
And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.

Ezekiel 38:18-20
This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. 19 In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground.

Zechariah 14:4
On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.

VERSES OF QUAKES AS JUDGMENTS

Psalm 18:15
The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

Psalm 60:2
You have shaken the land and torn it open; mend its fractures, for it is quaking.

Isaiah 13:13
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger.

Isaiah 24:19
The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is violently shaken.

Isaiah 24:20
The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again.

Isaiah 29:6
the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.

Nahum 1

1 A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
The LORD’s Anger Against Nineveh
The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade. The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it. Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.

I am glad I stand as His friend and not His enemy. How about you? Are you friend or foe of God?

end of days. prophecy, end time, enering His rest

Hating sin and loving Jesus

Posted on May 16, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I totally get Paul’s lament in Romans 7:15: “For what I am working out, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.” Every day I ask the Lord for opportunities to obey. For the most part I do, but sometimes I don’t. I hate that. I love Jesus and I want to make a Kingdom difference, but when He presents something I still balk sometimes. As Paul said, “I don’t understand what I do…”

There are a lot of serious illnesses, heartaches, and tremendous difficulties facing our people. Many people are hurting in some way or another.

I am so, so, so sick of sin, in other people of course- isn’t it easier to hate sin in others? lol, but I truly hate it worse in myself. I hate my sin!!! I’m convinced that the Bible’s promises of entering His rest (Hebrews 4:1) do not mean rest from labors. We will be doing a lot of work on New Earth and New Jerusalem. Adam was created to work the garden. I am convinced the verse means rest from our struggles with sin. In our glorified bodies in a sinless world, we will no longer have to guard every thought, control the tongue, fail, confess, obey, and repeat the fleshly cycle. It’s tiring. I can’t wait for rest. I really can’t.

The best part thought is that He is so present in the world, and so active and alive in us. He is so gracious to accept my repentance when I fail, and to bless me afterwards with a peace that He knows my heart (and loves me anyway.) I love Him so much. We have the truest God and the best God possible.

berean, bible, end of days. prophecy

Paul: What does it mean to be a Berean?

Posted on May 17, 2022May 17, 2022 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“In Berea”

“As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” (Acts 17:10-12).

How many times have we heard some celebrity caught in a traffic stop or in an indiscretion and when called to account on it, says “Don’t you know who I am?” They balk and they yell and they squirm and try to escape accountability due to their position. Quite often, their ego is inflated to a large enough degree that they never expect they’ll be asked to support their views or explain their mistake. Even more often, the person calling them to account are seen as the ones with the problem. “Don’t you know who that is?” they are told. “Don’t ask him to explain himself!” as if there ever comes a point when someone is above the law.

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end of days. prophecy, end time

Into the tempest: would you cut away the lifeboat?

Posted on February 28, 2022February 28, 2022 by elizabethprata

I was reading Acts 27 and the seafaring language was a wonderful reminder of days when I lived on a sailboat. Some days were lazy, drifting along in puffs of wind on a glassy sea. Other days were tempestuous, the sea raging and the boat beating into waves that seemed to grow ever higher. There was one rough overnight passage we made along the coast of New Jersey. When daylight came we saw that the dinghy we’d trailed behind our yacht was missing. The rope had snapped.

It was a disconcerting feeling to be separated from what would need to be our lifeboat if it ever came to that.

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end of days. prophecy, end time, famine, forgiveness, love, revelation

Looking at famine

Posted on January 25, 2022January 25, 2022 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I wrote about famine as a judgment from God recently. It is truly saddening to see these things happening because although I glory in His promises coming true it also means suffering and death for many. And death for the unsaved means an eternity away from God, in hell. In that essay I quoted a news article that said, “The striking images of the landscape seem to represent a deceptively simple assessment of the drought: the dirty work of Mother Nature.”

It is the LORD who sends the rain in preparation for the crops. (Psalms 147:8). It is the LORD who sends it to the obedient. (Leviticus 26:4). He appoints seasons in His own authority. (Acts 1:7). “Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” (Acts 14:17) He sends the crops, the seasons and the weather for our benefit, to His glory. He can, and will reverse the process when we fail to thank Him and refuse to acknowledge His authority. That is the spiritual fact.

On a practical level, famine is both biological and social. It occurs to a person individually while it is also happening to all others around the sufferer. And unlike pestilence, where sick people are quarantined, privately sequestered, or are too insentient to socially connect, famine leaves the individual able to share in it with others.

“When starvation becomes a mass experience, the phenomenon is no longer purely biological.” (Robert Dirks, Academia.edu).

Famine is sneaky because the population has no clue that this crop failure will lead to a continual shortage, or that this lack of monsoon rains will lead to a permanent drying-out. It is only after successive storms or failures or absence of expected weather that it become apparent that food will not be coming. By then malnourishment or early stages of starvation may have already set in.

The biological consequences of famine begin with scarcity, move to malnourishment, elevate to starvation, and finish with famine. Starvation happens when the energy demands of the biological unit exceed supply. Technically, starvation begins 4-6 hours after the last meal, when the body has broken down all that will be or is able to be used, and no new food is forthcoming. However since a person living in a healthy culture will then consume more within a reasonable time period after the last meal, the negative effects are not really felt.

After a day or so, though, dehydration, hypoglycemia, and ketosis begin. After 24 hours, there are impacts to the tissues as loss outpaces fat. As starvation continues, exhaustion sets in and there is decreased tolerance for work. People move more slowly and adopt an energy saving posture. “In mobilizing its reserves, the body progressively selects fat over muscle as fuel, allowing life to be sustained for one to three months in acute starvation.” (Dirks).

Things go rapidly downhill from there, with all sorts of nasty things happen to the individual’s biology. And that’s just starvation, not famine. But you can see, it happens quickly. Though drought and famine take a long time to set up, when it hits, the body, mind, and soul shrivel pretty quickly.

I wrote above that in the first few sentences mother nature was blamed, and in addition, war also precipitates famine. War does have a devastating connection with famine. In Revelation 6, first there is war, then there is scarcity, then there is death. Those are Seal Judgments two, three, and four. In history, famine has almost always followed war. As the Red Cross says in discussing humanitarian aid, “the fact must be faced that food aid alone will never eliminate famines nor the suffering they cause. It still falls short of meeting the victims’ needs and appears essentially inadequate to solve their problems.” That’s because there are complex reasons for it that also include war, conflict, and strife.

Famine is destructive to those societies where malnourishment is always present, and soon after initial starvation sets in, financial ruin and disease take over. For some societies, they may at first adapt to conditions that in many cases don’t affect them. There is such a thing as “class famine.” We see in Revelation 6:6 that millions starve, unable to afford more than a loaf of bread even though they worked all day, while in Revelation 18:13 we see that all the while, a hefty trade in food luxuries had been ongoing. (“and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep…”) There are the very rich and the very poor, and you can bet the very rich will not be affected by famine. The Tribulation’s predicted scarcities will be characterized by class famine.

When famine conditions deepen, the ‘Law of Diversification and Polarization’ comes into play. As Dirks quoted Sorokin, “simply put, this means that catastrophe brings out the best and the worst in people. It exaggerates what is already there.”

Sociological studies show that at first, people share when disaster strikes. As the disaster continues, and/or as supplies run short, sharing ceases. Starvation’s biological effects are that people become exhausted and irritable. Volatile situations erupt. Populations tend to migrate, looking for better conditions. The 1901 Indian Famine Commission called it “unusual wandering.” When adding to that the prophecy that love grows cold (Matthew 24:12), people are unthankful, (2 Timothy 3:2-4) and their thoughts are only evil continuously, (Matthew 24:37, Genesis 6:5) then you can see that violence will soon become the norm just at the time when people are physiologically least able to handle it.

So let me sum up the ivory tower talk: famines have always occurred and will continue to occur, followed by the worst brought out in people who are marauding hither and yon, looking for anything they can steal so they can stay alive. Violence breaks out and a true Darwinian human ‘survival of the fittest’ is played out in front of atheists everywhere, with the starving exhausted falling where they lay in irritable convulsions, dying by degrees while no neighbor cares.

Oh, but Jesus cares. His famines may be one of His sore judgments, yes, but it is to alert rebellious people that He is still in control and He is still holy. His control includes an eternal and infinite love for all His children. He wants you to turn from your carnal thoughts and lifting up of Mother Nature and replace those with perfect thoughts and spiritual infinity in His love. As long as you have not rejected him and slammed the door shut, you can enter the door to heaven by repenting of sins. He is the door and he stands ready to allow all who would believe to enter. (John 10:9)

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7) What is beyond that door? Certainly not war or famine or exhaustion or violence. See what is there:

The Gospel is exclusive: Jesus is the only way. The Gospel is inclusive: any person can accept Jesus as their savior and forgiver of sins. I hope you enter in to His rest, escaping all the Tribulation things and choosing to partake of the Eternal things. What it takes is a prayer to Jesus that you know and understand you’re a sinner, unworthy to enter His realm, and ask Him to forgive those sins. Since He is sinless and died as the sacrifice for your sins, your debt is paid. But you have to ask. Do it soon, my beloved friend. Soon.

bible jesus, end of days. prophecy, messiah

Do you have a divided heart, or a whole heart?

Posted on March 25, 2021April 24, 2021 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Hand to the plow, (or mower) look ahead, not back.
EPrata photo

Jesus at His zenith of popularity… Big crowds, laudatory accolades, and promises, promises by the naive:

“And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61-62).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary says of that verse, “As ploughing requires an eye intent on the furrow to be made, and is marred the instant one turns about, so will they come short of salvation who prosecute the work of God with a distracted attention, a divided heart. … The expression “looking back” has a manifest reference to ‘Lot’s wife’.“

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egypt, end of days. prophecy, end time, pre-tribulation rapture

America’s sad decline, Eschatology on the rise

Posted on August 27, 2020August 27, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

heaven
America’s trajectory seems to be heading downward. It took a long time, but our moral and spiritual decline is speeding up like a snowball down the Alps.

I’m not down on America. I think our nation is magnificent. But our atheism, child murder, immorality, and worship of pagan gods has chipped away at our core until now, there is barely anything left to stand us up on that hill. We are rolling down it. I believe it is so.

God raised us up and for a long time our influence was so strong in the world. We had the moral clout to speak because we believed in God. He gave us the strength to put moral actions to those words. No? Don’t think so? I have one word for you: D-Day. A generation of brave men got off a boat and waded to shore amid artillery fire to save Europe and the Jews from annihilation. Nowadays men would just Tweet about it, then go have a latte.

We stopped believing in God and we no longer have the moral clout to speak. Our influence must be removed. And note: we do not find our nation mentioned in the Bible in the end times at all. And why should we be? We were great, but only for a short time, and then we squandered it.

Bible prophecy seems to be dormant for years then suddenly a rapid progression occurs that is visible to most believers. Like earthquake activity, following years of inactivity, everything suddenly moves all at once.

I believe that anyone who reads the Bible on a constant basis notices the pattern. These days, I see a renewed interest in eschatology among believers, both in real life and in the stats of this blog whenever I write about it lately.

I’ll write more about eschatology in days to come. I am always glad when people delve into this aspect of the Bible, it IS almost a third of the entire Bible after all! It’s one of the pillars of study in Systematic Theology, too. In recent times stemming back decades, there have been date setters, newspaper eisegetes, and fringe folk who bring a bad name to this particular sphere of study. I do my best to bring biblical credibility back to it. Why? Prophecy gives us hope for the future, helps us see Christ as He is NOW, not only the beaten & crushed man on a cross but the Commander of Armies ordaining all activity in the universe from his throne in heaven, and instills a fervency of life for sharing the Gospel and pursuing holiness.

Maybe today will be the day we see Jesus, if not, then let’s study Eschatology!

end of days. prophecy, israel, Obama, peace and security

When they are saying peace and security…

Posted on July 8, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

Israel has never had peace or security. Not for any real length of time. Their constant falling away-repent-falling away cycle prevents that. their penchant for making alliances with hostile nations in vain hopes of forestalling attacks also is a sad pattern. (Ancient Assyria, Egypt, Cush … 2 Chronicles 18:1-2, Isaiah 31:1, Isaiah 20:5)

Praying for the peace of Israel as Psalm 122:6 says really means as Gill’s Exposition says, a future peace in the Millennium:

“but for the spiritual and heavenly Jerusalem, the church of God, and for the peace of it; that Christ, the Man, the Peace, the Peacemaker, who then was not come, might come; that the members of it might enjoy spiritual peace in their son is, and might have peace one with another, and be at peace with their enemies; and enjoy the abundance of peace and prosperity, which will be in the latter day;”

It will be then and only then Jerusalem has peace. That doesn’t stop Israel from seeking it though. Nor does it stop false friends from pressuring it upon Israel, either. The Israel Daily newspaper Haaretz this morning has a front page dedicated to peace. An opinion article from Obama is prominently placed there. Here is a photo of today’s front page from Haaretz:

In an exclusive article for Haaretz’s Israel Conference on Peace, Barack Obama says that the only solution is a democratic, Jewish state living side-by-side in peace and security with a viable, independent Palestinian state.

Peace talks have once again stalled out. Each President has tried to resolve the issues in the Middle East ever since Israel was created as a nation in 1948. Each president has failed. Only the antichrist will be able to [seemingly] resolve the conflict there but he will prove to be a betrayer and tear up the peace treaty he negotiates halfway through the covenant’s time period and turn around and persecute Israel to their almost bloody death. This is part of God’s plan.

This latest round of peace talks has ended with a sputter. Secretary of State Kerry failed to make headway. Tablet Magazine actually claims that America is the Arsonist in the Middle East, and that it was “Kerry’s failed peace negotiations set off the spiral of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.” Apparently someone has to blame someone.

Obama is pushing the issue once again after it has languished on the back burner these long months. A deadline set by Kerry 9-months ago has approached and it is time to renew attention to the issue. Hamas isn’t unaware either and has ramped up rocket fire in this last week. Joel C. Rosenberg writes today,

Escalation: 130 rockets fired at Israel since midnight. IDF calls up 40,000 reservists for possible ground operation in Gaza

(Washington, D.C.) — My heart is breaking over the escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians as the situation goes from bad to worse, hour by hour.

In recent days, Palestinian extremists kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenage boys.

Then Jewish extremists kidnapped and murdered an Arab teenage boy, apparently burning him alive.

Meanwhile, Palestinian extremists in Gaza began firing rockets at Jewish and Arab civilians in southern Israel.

More than 220 rockets have been fired at Israel since July 1st. And just since midnight, 130 rockets were fired at Israel.

Israel’s “Iron Dome” system is shooting down many of them.

The Israeli Air Force is striking Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government authorized “Operative Protective Edge” to ratchet up attacks on the terrorists in Gaza. The IDF is calling up 40,000 reservists for a possible massive ground invasion of Gaza.

I know the prophecy in Thessalonians is trotted out any time anyone ever says “peace and security”. The verse is actually pointing to the Day of the Lord, AKA the Time of Jacob’s Trouble AKA The Tribulation. However, it does do for us to keep the prophecy in mind as we watch unparalleled events in the Middle East occur. ISIS is advancing, a caliphate has been established, rocket fire is barraging Israel, the deadline for the peace talks is renewing pressure on everyone involved, and let’s not forget the violence in northern Africa and central Africa. Several of those nations will take part in the Psalm 83 war.

Jordan King: ‘We fear spread of Iraq chaos’
Floodgates open as ISIS takes over swaths of both Syria and Iraq
C. African Republic church attacks leaves 17 dead
Mild quake shakes Lebanon, western Syria and northern Israel
63 Women Escape Extremist Abductors in Nigeria
South Sudan Official Orders Curfew Violators to be Shot Dead

We won’t know the day or hour, or even whether the Day of the Lord is approaching very near, but we can see that the world is in turmoil and in need of its Savior once again. He will return in wrath next time though. Before there is peace on earth there will be wrath.

As for us Christians, John MacArthur reminds us,

You say, “Will we be there at the day of the Lord?” No. We’ll be taken out before the day of the Lord. Now as you know through all the years it has been my conviction to teach you that we are taken out before that final seventieth week, that final seven-year period begins. The great promise is that we have not been appointed unto wrath. We have been appointed unto glory. If you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, the future you look for is all glorious. If you don’t know Him, the future you look forward to is all terrifying. It is no insignificant thing that the whole world has its eyes on the Middle East, that’s where all the consummation of God’s history will take place. It could be in this generation, it could be soon. We must be ready. If you know Christ, you’ll be taken before it hits. If you don’t, you’ll be destroyed when it comes.

end of days. prophecy, signs in the stars

Signs in the sun, moon, and stars

Posted on March 26, 2012 by elizabethprata

Funky things will be happening to the sun and the moon and the stars during the Tribulation. Lately, we have seen an uptick in solar activity, and certainly there seems to be an asteroid a day discovered, and each one that is discovered seems to have a trajectory bringing it closer and closer to earth.

The prophecies regarding the funky things happening to the sun such as it going dark are plentiful in the Old Testament and in the New:

Isaiah 13:10–For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

Joel 2:31–The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

Matthew 24:29– [The Coming of the Son of Man] “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Revelation 8:12 [Fourth Trumpet: The Heavens Struck] Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.

Jesus said that in advance of His coming that “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.” Luke 21:25. Here are a few newspaper articles about that funkiness in advance of the Tribulation (which of course will grow much worse during that 7 year period of judgment):

Here is a roundup from The Weather Channel titled “The ten weirdest things about March 2012 weather“.
“To say March 2012 has been weird…strange…bizarre weatherwise has been, frankly, a gross understatement.”
1. Record Heat — An Understatement
2. Heaviest late-season snow
3. A Massive, Rapid Snowmelt
4. 80s…in Canada…in March!
5. All-Time March Heat … Several Days in a Row!
6. Atlanta Pollen Count Tops 9,000
7. Michigan, Minnesota Tornadoes … in March
8. Record Hailstone…in Hawaii!!
9. Chicago Record Streak
10. International Falls: The Melting Icebox

The planet Mercury is swelling up. It must have water weight gain this time of the month…

Mystery rising with Mercury
“Something besides volcanic eruptions and asteroid and comet impacts has sculpted the surface of Mercury — an unknown process, possibly still going on today, that causes the ground to swell from the inside out.The evidence, collected by a NASA spacecraft orbiting the innermost planet, is scattered all over Mercury, including a dramatic finding that half of the floor of the biggest crater on the planet has been raised above the walls.”

Hmmm, weird. I wonder what is making the planet Mercury swell up. I hope they find out. There is so much going on in the universe it boggles my mind! Yet God is in control of it all.

Solar storm dumps gigawatts
“A surge of infrared radiation from nitric oxide molecules on March 8-10, 2012, signals the biggest upper-atmospheric heating event in seven years. A recent flurry of eruptions on the sun did more than spark pretty auroras around the poles. NASA-funded researchers say the solar storms of March 8th through 10th dumped enough energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere to power every residence in New York City for two years.”

From Spaceweather.com. a CME is a coronal mass ejection–
“INCREDIBLE SUNSPOT AR1429: Big sunspot AR1429, the source of so many strong flares and geomagnetic storms earlier this month, is still erupting. The active region produced a significant coronal mass ejection on March 24th at 00:39 UT. Because of the sunspot’s location on the far side of the sun, this particular CME will not hit Earth. An animated forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab shows the trajectory of the expanding cloud.The leading edge of the CME is expected to arrive at the STEREO-B spacecraft on March 25th at 13:08 UT (+/- 7 hours). None of the inner planets will be affected.Since March began, sunspot AR1429 has propelled CMEs into every corner of the solar system, stirring up stormy space weather around every planet and spacecraft. If the sunspot remains active for another week or so, it will turn back toward Earth for a new round of geoeffective eruptions. Stay tuned.”

Scientists are beginning to wonder if the giant asteroid Vesta is actually a planet
“For years, scientists have been calling Vesta an asteroid. Granted, it’s a big asteroid — at 330 miles across, it’s the second biggest in the solar system — but NASA’s Dawn spacecraft recently got its closest look at Vesta yet, and according to Dawn’s principle investigator Christopher Russel, astronomers have been finding it hard not to refer to the asteroid as a planet. Of course, the odds of the International Astronomical Union convening to name Vesta a planet (the same way they met in 2006 to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet) are basically zero. So instead, astronomers have taken to describing the massive asteroid as “transitional.” But what’s with all the confusion in the first place? Long story short: Vesta resembles a planet. And not just any planet; Vesta is home to a lot of features typically associated with terrestrial bodies like Earth.”

“Transitional”?? LOL! Talk about not knowing and thus hedging your bets… As an aside, I always wondered why the scientists name the planetary bodies after mythological gods and none are named after the real bible heroes. You find Vesta, goddess of home and hearth; Venus, Roman goddess of love; Mars, Roman god of war; Pluto, Roman god of the underworld; Jupiter, Roman king of all gods; Mercury, messenger to the gods; Saturn, Roman god of agriculture (and origin of Saturnalia, a gift giving celebration held around the third week of December and in which some of its customs may have influenced the seasonal celebrations surrounding Christmas); Neptune, god of water and the see; Uranus is the ancient Greek god of the Heavens, but was dethroned by his son Cronus. Here is a link to the origin of the names for the planets, moons, and satellites.

Note the similarity of the ancient Greek and Roman myths to the truth of the bible account of the origin of the universe–

According to Greek mythology, the first god was Chaos. While the word Chaos brings certain images of mayhem and disorderliness to the English-speaking mind, the Greek god Chaos was just a big, empty, black, Nothing. Chaos was Nothingness, the Void, or empty space. After Chaos came the goddess Earth, who was known to the Greeks as Gaia, and to the Romans as Terra. Earth appeared out of nothing according to Greek mythology: “Chaos was first of all, but next appeared broad-bosomed Earth” (Hesiod, Theogony). To the ancients, of course, earth was not perceived as a planet, as it was not perceived to “wander” or move at all.Ge (Earth) was a virgin when she gave birth to her firstborn son, Ouranos, which means “Sky” in Greek. “Although the Roman name for the god Sky was Caelus, the Latin spelling of the Greek name Ouranos was “Uranus”. From this, we get the name of a modern planet…” (source)

It is interesting to see that when Vesta was discovered in 1807 the asteroid was thought of as a planet for about fifty years. It was declassified as a planet in the mid 1800s. So as I was saying earlier about the scientists, their information unfolds and as new facts are added their paradigms change. It’s the missing link! No it’s not! It’s a planet! No, it’s not! It’s a new volcano! No it’s not!

Are we not blessed with the bible which we can count on as total truth, all the time?! Aren’t we blessed to have an unchanging Savior?! Keep looking up. The more funky things happening the more likely it is that He will call for us in the rapture. We don’t know what day or hour, but the celestial funkiness and weather anomalies tells us that it may be the season…

bible jesus, end of days. prophecy, messiah

Do you have a divided heart, or a whole heart?

Posted on March 26, 2012 by elizabethprata

Jesus at His zenith of popularity… Big crowds, laudatory accolades, and promises, promises by the naive:

You can imagine what a furrow looks like when a plow has swerved. Or a mower with the operator looking backwards. It soon gets crooked.

The ‘don’t look back’ warning in Luke does bring immediately to mind the warning given to Lot and his family as they prepared to flee the imminent judgment at Sodom, that most wicked city. The angel told the family,

“Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” (Gen 19:17b).

Those directions are pretty clear. Don’t look back. The family had been told in no uncertain terms that what was going to happen to the city. They knew it was judgment from God, and they knew they were in the presence of an angel who was delivering this message. you cannot get much higher than an authority than an angel sent by God, and you would think that a person would listen to the directions. When the judgment started, this is what happened:

“Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Gen 19:24-26).

She had a divided heart.

Now, the Lord is THE highest authority. And He told the would-be follower in Luke not to look back. He had discerned that the would-be follower already had a divided heart. You can’t move forward while looking back. If you do, you mar your walk.

Jesus is the most beautiful treasure, the most glowing glory, the most perfect sight one could ever imagine. He is the most important person in the Universe, from all time and forever. The question is, why would you WANT to look back? Is there a possession Mrs Lot had that was worth more to her than her family around her? More important than an angel from God? More important than judgment behind and salvation ahead?

Of the young follower questioning Jesus, who was at his house that was more important than the Messiah?

In John 6, Jesus was talking with the disciples. A great many of them had been following Jesus for some time, including the Twelve. As Jesus was preaching about the bread and the blood, and saying that no one can come to Him unless it has been granted by the Father. It was a hard saying, hard to understand and hard to accept. The scriptures say,

“As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”

Peter got it. He knew that there was nothing else on earth more important than the time He could spend with Messiah in person.

Do you have a divided heart? Where else would you go, once you found the key to eternal life, and the One who brings it? There is no place else to go, nothing else to have, not one thing of any iota of importance compared to Jesus. A divided heart is no heart. What was Mrs Lot looking at? What was back at Sodom that was better to mourn over than in looking back, rather than looking ahead at the angel who was leading them to safety? Who was better for the young would-be follower to be with than the most important Person of the universe??

My hope for myself and for you is to have a whole heart for Jesus.