Category: end time

Posted in end time, homosexuality, sin

Backsliding Baptists muddy waters of gay marriage issue

Posted on by elizabethprata

Dr. David P. Gushee’s bio on Wikipedia states he is an historian, ethicist, public intellectual, and professor dealing primarily with ethical issues and Christian thought. Gushee is the Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, and was formerly the Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy and the Senior Fellow of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Christian Leadership at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. Gushee also serves as the president of Evangelicals for Human Rights, an organization advocating for an end to torture, especially that sponsored by the United States government. Additionally, he is a columnist for Christianity Today and the Associated Baptist Press.

For all that, here is some news about something he said and did recently- this is from the Associated Baptist Press–

Gushee: Covenant best model for sexual relationship
“The co-convener of a conference on sexuality and covenant said April 20 that long-term committed relationships are the best model for Christians struggling to make sense of changing morals about sex.”

Don’t get excited. It sounds good. But it is not good. Read on.

“I believe that covenant is a, if not the, single best way that has emerged in the great Christian tradition to talk about what we are supposed to do with our sexuality, and for that matter, our relationality,” said David Gushee, an ethics professor at Mercer University, co-sponsor with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of the April 19-21 conference at First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga.”

Still don’t know why I’m disappointed? He hasn’t said MARRIAGE yet. Read on.

“Gushee defined covenant as a “voluntarily entered sacred pact between two persons and between those two persons and the God to whom both are committed.” OH NO! Why, you ask? Because he said ‘two persons’. Not “man and woman.” Read on:

“Gushee said he doesn’t think the main issue facing the church today is which groups of people are to be viewed as eligible to make covenants. “The main issue is to rescue the very practice of covenant before it disappears forever, not only in society but in our own house,” he said.”

BAD BAD BAD. He wants to ‘rescue” covenants (like God needs human help with maintaining covenants) but declines to specify who is eligible to enter them. However the bible is clear on who is eligible to enter the type of covenant he is talking about, marriage. It is a man and a woman. The Bible condemns homosexuality as an immoral and unnatural sin. Leviticus 18:22 identifies homosexual sex as an abomination, a detestable sin. Romans 1:26-27 declares homosexual desires and actions to be shameful, unnatural, lustful, and indecent. Defining “which groups” are eligible to enter sexual covenant is not a necessary endeavor for today’s Christian because it already has been defined for us. All we need to do is proclaim the truth and obey it. Failing that and instead focusing on the covenant and not the people in the covenant is a backwards approach that leaves out Jesus.

First Corinthians 6:9 states that homosexuals are unrighteous and will not inherit the kingdom of God. it stands to reason that a sacred covenental relationship between same genders would be entering a sinful relationship and not approved by God. That Gushee declined to specify that, thereby proclaiming less than the whole counsel of God, is a severe disappointment.

The Baptist Standard covered the conference this way–:

 Christians lack consensus on sexual ethics, speaker tells conference
“Christians no longer share a consensus that sex outside of marriage is always wrong and must find new ways to deal with that reality besides splitting into smaller and smaller groups over issues like homosexuality and contraception, a keynote speaker said April 19 in the opening session of a [Baptist] Conference on Sexuality and Covenant co-sponsored by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Mercer University’s Center for Theology and Public Life. … David Gushee, head of Mercer’s Center for Theology and Public Life, said the university was happy to co-sponsor the event because of its long identity as a Baptist institution and interest “in promoting dialogue about an important and sensitive issue that some people would be afraid to host a dialogue about.” Gushee said his center normally deals with public policy issues, but in this case cordoned off that part of the discussion to make it easier to have conversation. He said the conference still could have implications for public policy if it demonstrates that people really can discuss a sensitive issue like sexuality constructively and with respect.”

Here is the perspective on “dialogue”. I’ve always been interested in language, and how language, particularly through media, influences the mind. How it can clarify or obfuscate. The Emergent Church penchant for insisting on ‘respectful dialogue’ is part of the tactic of obfuscation. It brings muddiness to the clarity of scripture and it is simply a defense mechanism for satan to deflect dogmatic truth.

I posted a blog entry a short while ago titled “It’s 2012 and homosexuality is still a sin” as a jab at emergent post-modern culture that says we have to get with the times and dialogue about these points to see whether they are still relevant. I have an answer for you. They are still relevant. End of dialogue.

As a result of my interest in how language is used or misused, the emergent church, and John MacArthur’s solidly biblical sermons, I’ve heard just about everything MacArthur has said or written on the subject. Here is his explanation of the tendency toward dialogue in his essay “The perspicuity of scripture“

He wrote- “A new movement is now arising in evangelical circles. Apparently, the main object of attack will be the perspicuity of Scripture. Influenced by postmodern notions about language, meaning, subjectivity, and truth, many younger evangelicals are questioning whether the Word of God is clear enough to justify certainty or dogmatism on points of doctrine. Ironically, this new movement to a certain extent ignores all the previous debates. Instead, its proponents are more interested in dialogue and conversation. As a result, they scorn and rebuff propositional truth (which tends to end dialogue rather than cultivate it) as an outmoded vestige of twentieth-century modernism.”

He’s right. Proclamation tends to shut them up. There is no debating God.

Peter said that Jesus preached to the spirits in prison, (1 Peter 3:19) and the word preached means proclaimed. The Greek word is kērýssō (“to herald”) and refers to preaching the Gospel as the authoritative (binding) word of God, bringing eternal accountability to all who hear it. (Strong’s Concordance).

Do you really believe that scripture is so unclear about what’s a sin that we need to have endless discussion as to whether marriage is meant for life between a man and a woman under God or can be included to mean two men for whatever period of time as their lust brings them together? If so, do you believe that when Jesus descended to prison to speak with the demon spirits, He said “Let’s promote a dialogue about an important and sensitive issue that some people would be afraid to host a dialogue about. And I promise to be respectful”?? NO. He proclaimed GOD’s RIGHTEOUSNESS. His death & resurrection meant He triumphed over death, over hell and over sin, sin that includes homosexuality!

I’m really disappointed in the Baptist segment of our denomination that is behaving this way. Failing to stand on the word of God as authoritative and binding means one is actually standing on a house of sand. And we all know what happens when the storm comes. “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

Note the last line of the parable. “Great was its fall.” The Greek word defines ‘great’ as megas, “large, as in the widest sense.” Jesus is saying that unless you stand on His word as the foundation, your fall will be so great it couldn’t be any greater!

Posted in bible, bozrah, end time

Petra the Sheepfold

Posted on by elizabethprata

I wrote about Petra once before, here. This is an excerpt of that blog essay.

Petra is also known as Sela, both of which means rock. The rose red city of Petra in Jordan is referred to in Judges 1:36; Isaiah 16:1, Is 42:11; Obad. 3 where Petra is known as the “cleft in the rock”. Petra is also known as Bozrah, which means sheepfold. Sheepfold or sheep pen is an enclosure designed with overhangs or other protection from the elements, and is solid enough to keep the sheep in and the wild animals out. It always has one narrow gate for entry. Bozrah is the perfect sheepfold! Our Shepherd Jesus will protect His remnant during the Great Tribulation at Bozrah, the sheepfold, the Cleft in the Rock.

It is there He returns at the Second Coming and becomes stained with blood of the armies attempting to wipe out the remnant, and leads them to victory at Mt. Olive. (Photo source above)

God’s Vengeance on the Nations
“Who is this who comes from Edom, With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, This One who is majestic in His apparel, Marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press? “I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples there was no man with Me I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath; And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My raiment.” (Isaiah 63:1-3)

Jews during the Great Tribulation are told by Jesus in Revelation 12:6 “Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” In Matthew 24:15-16 He tells them when they see the Abomination of Desolation to to flee to the mountains. The only place where there are mountains across the desert is toward Jordan and to Petra.

In that Day, two-thirds of the Jews will be killed during the Tribulation. One-third survives. (Zechariah 13:8). That one-third had fled to the mountains at Petra and there they are protected, but it is also there that they finally repent and clamor for the Messiah, Jesus. (Zechariah 12:10). Now let’s fast forward our imaginations to that terrible time, and envision the Jews who are now Christians, repentant and supplicating to Jesus, nourished by him, His sheep finally returned to the fold. Look at the picture below and imagine the worship services that will be happening in that Day!

Imagine, being nourished by the very providence of God! As they were once nourished by the quail and the manna in the desert, so again will the remnant be nourished in the desert, His sheep protected by the sheepfold at Bozrah throughout the latter half of the Tribulation!

He is a God who cares for His people, He prepares places for us. And that is a mighty thing indeed. Hallelujah to the One True and Mighty God!

source

Posted in end time, sounds of the apocalypse, strange noise in oregon

Strange sounds in the sky: Oregon

Posted on by elizabethprata

Along with all the increased signs that Jesus predicted we would see in advance of His coming, such as wars, earthquakes, pestilences etc; the manifested or visible supernatural has also increased. It will increase a lot more during the Tribulation, Revelation tells us. Also Joel. I’ve posted about the strange onset in NY of what doctors are calling Tourette’s but looks for all the world like demonic possession, entire towns where strange demonic things happen (Sicily and the clocks, demon attack in West Indies and a follow-up), a vampire in Colorado that caused a car crash, Halo over Mile High Stadium, and who can forget the Norwegian Doom Spiral and the Ghost Horse of Tahrir Square? Now the strange sounds of the Apocalypse. That is the public’s name for the phenomenon, not mine.

I’ve posted about the strange sounds three times this year. In January, March and April. Of all the weird/inexplicable things that have been happening, I’m most intrigued by the Strange Sky Noises. (Another name for the phenomenon). And it is a phenomenon by now. Phenomenon is defined as “any observable occurrence.”  But that doesn’t seem to adequately cover the definition for the Sounds of the Apocalypse events that are occurring all over the world. So we look at the definition of Paranormal Phenomenon: which is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside “the range of normal experience or scientific explanation” or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science’s current ability to explain or measure. Paranormal phenomena are distinct from certain hypothetical entities, such as dark matter and dark energy, only insofar as paranormal phenomena are inconsistent with the world as already understood through empirical observation coupled with scientific methodology.” (Wikipedia).

THAT seems to define it.

Here is the commentary for the video uploaded by the Oregon woman:

“This is the 3rd morning in a row at roughly 3:00 am. The sound starts with a rumbling in the ground, and then the sound continues for roughly 30 minutes or so. Can not explain where it is coming from, it seems as if it is coming strait from the sky with not a single plane in sight. If anyone has anymore info. on this sound we are hearing, I would very much appreciate any explanation to what we are experiencing here in Oregon. Thank you.”

This blog has a follow up with questions asked of the Youtube lady who had uploaded the video. She answered some of the questions people had wondered about in her comment section.

Now for the biblical exploration of the strange sky noises.

“A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 25:31).  The Hebrew word for noise is defined in Strong’s Concordance: “shaon: or din, clamor, big noise, roaring, rumbling, tumult.” The sounds people have been hearing all over the world have been variously described with exactly those adjectives. Strong’s further defines the word shaon, “a roar of many waters as in simile of noise of invading host.” Further, the infinitive of the word is defined as “by implication, destruction — horrible, noise, pomp, rushing, tumult”. Horrible. Yes. You will remember that the host are the armies of angels, both the good ones and the fallen ones. In none of the cases where the noise was heard and recorded did it sound like a pleasant noise. The noises are not named Sounds of the Apocalypse for nothing.

If the armies of heaven are readying for the battle, then what would it sound like? When Elisha asked God to reveal by sight to his servant the host that had gathered around them, were there also sounds that the servant heard?

“When Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:17). Would Elisha’s servant have heard rumbling of the chariots? Were his ears also opened? I dare to say that when a multitudinous army masses for battle, there is clanking and rumbling and noise.

We know in John 12:28-29 that when Jesus prayed to God for Him to glorify His name, “Then a voice came out of heaven: “Father, glorify Your name.” “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.” So some heard thunder and some heard the voice of an angel.

I have no doubt that some of these noises are hoaxes. But many of them are not. How do I know? Well, for example, this one above. It is the spookiest, creepiest, scariest I’ve heard yet. When you get to the last few seconds, the lady says ‘I am going to just stay here until it ends’ and right then, the noise crescendos into something that is utterly horrifying to the soul. At that time she says, “UH MAYBE NOT!” and the screen goes blank. The sound terrifies not just the ears but the soul. It raised hackles on my neck and sent a shudder down my body. It caused a spiritual reaction that freaked me out so I won’t listen to it again. If a hoax noise can do that, then my hat is off to the hoaxer.

Otherwise, pray, people, for soon the sounds will be sight, and the sight will be terrible to behold. Elisha and his servant were not afrighted because the host they were allowed to see were there to help them. In Jeremiah, we read that “He will give them that are wicked the sword.” The justified will be in heaven due to the rapture. The wicked will be the ones that are left behind. And it will be to them that the horrible host will rumble with a tumult out of the sky to put them to the sword.

If you are frightened by that specter, then plea to Jesus for forgiveness of your sins. He died for those sins, you know! They are forgiven already. All you have to do is call upon Him as Lord, and because of His death and resurrection, the sin-debt to God has been satisfied. You can be included in that happy group, if you repent. Otherwise the Sounds of the Apocalypse will soon become sight, and “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:26).

Posted in dolphin die-off, end time, woke up gay

News tidbits of the weird

Posted on by elizabethprata

Massive Dolphin Die-Off in Peru May Remain a Mystery
“When a retired fisherman called to report that about 1,500 dolphins had washed up dead on Peru’s northern coast, veterinarian Carlos Yaipén’s first reaction was, “That’s impossible.” But when Yaipén traveled up the coast last week, he counted 615 dead dolphins along a 135-kilometer stretch of coastline. Now, the death toll could be as high as 2,800, based on volunteers’ counts. Peru’s massive dolphin die-off is among the largest ever reported worldwide. The strandings, which began in January, are a marine mystery that may never be unraveled.”

As we approach the time of the Tribulation, which is a manifestly supernatural time, we increasingly find events in the news that totally perplex authorities and scientists. In this present Church Age, though the supernatural exists (Ephesians 6:10-20; Hebrews 13:2), we don’t see it in mass quantity. In the Tribulation, they will see the supernatural in mass quantity. The inexplicable will be a fact of life. (Two Witnesses resurrected, rivers and seas turn to blood, demon locusts from the abyss, etc). As we get closer, we see the increasingly inexplicable occurring in increasingly in wider spheres. These events are getting harder to dismiss.

In this next news story, there have been some nasty hail storms lately. I wrote about hail twice this week, here, and here. Hail is devastating to crops. He sends the hail, and for different reasons. (“He destroyed their vines with hail,And their sycamore trees with frost” (Psalm 78:47) and “I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord.” (Haggai 2:17)

Hail storm equals crop damage
KINGS COUNTY, Calif. (KMPH) -“This week growers throughout the Valley are accessing the damage of last week’s powerful hail storm that rolled through the area. The hardest struck was to the south, from north Hanford to the Kingsburg area. The total monetary loss is still too hard to predict because the damage was so widespread, but it is in the millions. … Pete Hanse says “Storms like this one I saw maybe one other time, but not very often.”

UK rugby player had stroke, lay in a coma, woke up gay, he says
“I wasn’t interested in women any more. I was definitely gay,” Birch said. “I had never been attracted to a man before. I’d never even had any gay friends. But I didn’t care about who I was before, I had to be true to my feelings.”

Mr Birch is the focus of an upcoming BBC documentary, which explores the question, “the crux of the documentary was whether Birch truly “woke up gay” – was it really a transformation, as he insists, or merely a realisation of something that had been dormant within him his whole life?”

The issue of homosexuality being a neurological fact and not a lifestyle choice has the liberals wetting their pants at the prospect of homosexuality letting them off the hook, and ultimately not being morally culpable to a Holy God. I believe the man int he article was merely actualizing a sin that had lain in his mind all his life. (Mark 7:21-22; Matthew 23:26). Sin is not only what we do, it is what we think. Entertaining sinful thoughts leads to speaking of them, and finally to doing them.

If you find yourself thinking of sins, allow the Spirit to transform your mind by taking every thought captive. (2 Corinthians 10:5). If you hear yourself speaking of sins even in joking fashion, realize that the sinful thoughts are on their way to ensnaring you. Picture them as slimy tentacles, clutching your brain. But the Spirit is powerful and so appealing to Him in penitence will clear the decks for purity of heart and clarity of mind to swoop in again. Don’t dwell in sinful thoughts, and certainly don’t start joking, speaking, or telling of sinful things. “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature (Romans 13:14).”

As for Mr Birch, the Lord will sort that one out. As of now, the gentleman is sinning by living in a homosexual lifestyle. But our Lord is powerful and forgiving, Mr Birch or any homosexual can be saved…if he repents.

Posted in bible jesus, end time, freak storms, hailstorm

Freak hailstorm amazes, hard to believe

Posted on by elizabethprata

Have you ever heard of people getting killed by hail? I haven’t so much, either. I’ve heard of lightning strikes, and deaths by tornadoes, hurricanes, and windstorms. But not hail. Until yesterday:

“Hailstones the size of golf balls have reportedly killed three people and injured 25 others in China. The giant pieces of ice pelted several rural areas in east China’s Jiangxi province overnight and on Wednesday morning, resulting in the deaths of three people, the Xinhua news agency said. The hailstones were said to be as large as 3.5cm in diameter and weighed 18g on average. The storms forced the evacuation of more than 700 people, destroyed about 2,700 hectares of crops and damaged more than 900 houses, a spokesman with the Jiangxi provincial department of civil affairs said. Around 170,000 Jiangxi residents have been affected by the freak weather, the spokesman added.”

So let’s take a look at whether the impression I have of the rarity of death by hailstones is legitimate or not:

The folks at American Association for the Advancement of Science; ScienceNet Links were asked the same thing.

“Every year, tornadoes, hurricanes, and snowstorms claim lives and cause injuries. But strangely, hailstorms, which pelt the ground with hard balls of ice, never seem to hit human targets. A listener called Science Update to ask why. We’ve all heard stories about golf ball- and baseball-size hail denting cars and damaging houses. So that prompted Lee Greenfield of Washington, D.C., to ask why we never hear about people getting hurt by hail. We checked with Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist at The National Severe Storm Lab in Norman, Oklahoma. He says hail stones have to be a couple inches in diameter to cause injury. But hail of that size is pretty rare. And hail that could really seriously hurt you—getting to be baseball-size and larger—there aren’t very many storms each year that do that. And even within a storm that does produce hail that size, not very many of the stones are that big. Most of the stones are much smaller than that. … the listener’s perception—that relatively few people get killed or injured by hail—is correct.”

So just as I was mulling all that over, today I read of another hailstorm that was freak to say the least.

4 feet of hail? Massive hail storm hits Texas panhandle

“DALLAS–Maintenance crews worked Thursday to clear roads after a storm dumped several inches of hail on parts of the Texas Panhandle, trapping motorists in muddy drifts that were waist-to-shoulder high. The storm left so much hail in its wake that workers had to use snow plows to clear the piles from the road.”It was crazy,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Justyn Jackson said about the strange storm, which hit Wednesday afternoon. The hail was “real small” but there was a lot of it in a concentrated area, accumulating 2- to 4-feet deep, he said. The rural area where the storm struck was mainly ranch land, about 25 miles north of Amarillo and south of Dumas. Rainwater gushed across the parched land, washing dirt and then mud into the hail, pushing it all onto U.S. 287, Potter County Sheriff Brian Thomas said. “There were just piles of hail,” said Maribel Martinez with the Amarillo/Potter/Randall Office of Emergency Management. “Some of the cars were just buried in hail and people were trapped in their cars.”

This story from the UK Daily Mail is pretty interesting. Apparently even though the US Weather Service confirmed the freak weather event, people were dubious. So they posted photos on the US Weather Service Facebook page and people were still dubious. Skeptics derided the unlikelihood of the event as actually having occurred, it was so outside the scope of understanding and expectation as a weather happening. The Daily Mail focused on the skepticism part, and titled their article, “Hail No!“

“A small town in Texas was hit with a whopper of a storm Wednesday morning that left four feet of hail in its wake.Officials from the National Weather Service in Amarillo said that the storm was so severe and the hail so unrelenting that a major highway in Potter County was completely covered. But the photos of the one-off event are so unbelievable that an army of online sceptics have cast doubt on their authenticity, suggesting that instead they may simply show large rocks. When the weather service posted a photograph to Facebook of a firefighter next to the ice — which reached all the way up to his chest — commenters couldn’t believe their eyes. That just doesn’t even look real! Dang!’ Bridget Hefner said on the site. Commenters turned their disbelief into hypotheses, offering alternative explanations to the unbelievable reality. ‘Looks like a bunch of rocks/stones,’ suggested Tiffany Baugh Berry. Another cynical poster wrote: ‘It’s a lite dusting of hail on some damn rocks.’ ‘I can assure you we do not have big rocks like that in West Texas,’ Scotten retorted to MSNBC.com. ‘That was four feet of ice,’ she insisted, adding that the hail was compacted by rain and floodwater across a wide area. She blamed the ice’s rock-like appearance on drought.’We’re very dusty around here,’ she said.”

Here is a raw video from an eyewitness. At about 51 seconds in, one guy says to another, Have you ever seen anything like THIS?” The other guy answers, “No! No I have not.”

Yesterday I noted that the Lord said in His Olivet Discourse of the signs in advance of His coming that “you will hear…”  and the word for hear means to listen, with an attendant figurative meaning of “to hear God’s voice which prompts Him to birth faith within.”

THESE ARE SIGNS FROM GOD, people! Wake UPPPPP.

As far as the localized nature of the Texas hailstorm goes, He has done that before:

“And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another ….” (Amos 4:7)

In the past He has used hail to wake up the population to turn to Him, as well:
“I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord.” (Haggai 2:17)

And He will use hail in the future. Now, if golf ball sized hail can kill, weighing mere ounces, what will a global deluge of 100 pound hail do to people? It will be massive death:

“And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe. (Revelation 16:21).

See, by then they know it is God who sends the hail, and for judgment, too, but they are so far gone that they simply blaspheme Him. Don’t let that be you. Repent NOW.

Posted in end time, signs

End time warnings are sent to spark faith

Posted on by elizabethprata

On the Mount of Olives, Jesus sat with his disciples and answered their questions about the end of the age and the signs of His second coming. He answered in specific detail in Matthew 24 and 25, also Mark 13 and Luke 21. It is the longest answer He gave to any question the disciples asked.

The verses in Mt 24:3-6 read: ” Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

Verse 6 begins with ‘to hear’. I looked up the Greek word to hear, listen is from: akoúō – properly, to hear (listen); (figuratively) to hear God’s voice which prompts Him to birth faith within

These signs are warnings to allow the Spirit to give birth to the faith within. A parallel reference to Matthew 24:6 is given as Romans 10:17: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

He speaks through His word (the bible) and He speaks through the creation.

Of those who won’t listen and won’t allow the birth of faith inside them by heeding the end times signs, I am reminded of Paul’s warning in Romans 1:18, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,’

They suppress the nascent flame of faith that the signs are meant to kindle!

Please listen to what Jesus is telling us in these days. He loves you and wants for your sins to be forgiven so He may embrace you as friend on Judgment Day (1 Timothy 2:4), and not cast you alive into the Lake of Fire as an enemy. The difference between friend and enemy is a personal recognition of our own sins, and asking Jesus to forgive them, making Him the Lord and Savior of your life- this life AND the next one.

Posted in earthquake, end time, indonesia

Is God speaking through the Indonesian earthquakes?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Today there have been two mega-quakes in Indonesia, with major aftershocks. They occurred in the same place the terrible 2004 quake occurred, near Banda Aceh, which sparked a tsunami that killed almost a quarter million people. Thankfully today, no one has yet been reported killed (a miracle in itself!) but tsunami warnings went up in over a dozen nations almost immediately. Later it was discovered that the were not the kind of quakes that cause tsunamis. By this afternoon, the warnings had been lifted.

Three weeks ago, after a large earthquake in Mexico, I posted information about the Mexican quake and also looked at the bigger picture by asking ‘are there more quakes?’ Jesus said in Matthew 24:7 that as a sign of His soon coming there would be earthquakes in diverse places, and He also said in the next verse that the time would be like birth pangs. It is generally understood that because birthpangs increase in intensity and frequency as the birth gets closer that the signs He listed would also increase in the same manner. In that essay I posted a chart. I searched the USGS database for quakes in each of the large quake magnitudes, year by year. I plotted the results. I compared them against the annual average the USGS uses as a benchmark. Voila, here is the result:

Given that the number of earthquakes are rising, what is the percentage change? Here is the percentage change in 2011 over the annual average number of quakes USGS says we can expect:

5.0-5.9 mag: 72% UP
6.0-6.9 mag: 38% UP
7.0-7.9 mag: 36% UP
8.0-9.0 mag: 0% change

Percentage change in 2012 so far:
8.0-9.0 mag: 100% UP

People are curious about the connection to the end times and earthquakes. Many people wonder, is there a connection? Is there a Godly purpose to earthquakes? Yes. Yes there is.

God has used earthquakes for several reasons. Here are just a few. In the Old Testament, Mount Sinai ‘trembled violently’ before God spoke to Moses. (Exodus 19:18).

God used an earthquake to demonstrate the outcome of rebellion against Him. The ground opened, swallowing Korah and his men. (Numbers 16:31-32).

God used an earthquake to show that despite His power to create an earthquake, Elijah could also hear Him in the still, small voice. (I Kings 19:11).

The great earthquake at the time of King Uzziah was spoken of by Amos. Uzziah had grown insolent and haughty. The LORD used the earthquake to remind the king of the LORD’S power. That one was a judgment quake.

In Matthew 24:7 Jesus told His disciples (and us) that in the last days there would be earthquakes in various places as one of the signs of His coming. (Mt 24:7).

In Matthew 27:51-54 when Jesus died on the cross a great earthquake occurred, splitting the Temple veil in two and resurrecting many saints from their graves. This was a vivid demonstration of His power, and as a witness to the truth that Jesus is His Son.

In Revelation, quakes are mentioned 7 times. In Revelation 11, when the Two Witnesses are resurrected, “In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.” (Rev 11:13). He will use that future quake to show His glory and many will respond.

In today’s twin 8.0-plus quakes, The UK Daily Mail reports, “In the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh, terrified residents screamed ‘God is great!’ as they jumped into cars and the backs of motorcycles, clogging streets as they fled to high ground.” I hope that of those who yelled God is great that they were speaking of the One True God and that they repented of their sins and sought Jesus as Savior.

An anonymous commenter posted on the previous blog essay about earthquakes, the following wisdom:

“God uses these things to calls us back to him…the Lord continues to come after us. He will keep reaching toward us all, to save us all. It will become more and more clear, and the choice will become very clear. Recently I had a young man who found out how evil music has become. He went away from it, and then made the clear decision to stay with it, evil or not. He made a clear decision. I think that the Lord will use things and people, so we make a clear choice. No more waffling, no more half-measures…either you are with the Lord, or you are not…”

As the LORD said to Ezekiel about His messages, “As for them, whether they listen or not– for they are a rebellious house– they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (Ez 2:5). By the end of time at the Judgment Seat, no one will be able to say that God didn’t use use various means to warn them. However, not all will make the choice to respond to His messages, whether they are bible verses, a sermon, an earthquake, or the still small voice of the Spirit. I believe the commenter is right. We are rapidly approaching the time when the entire world will have made the choice yea or nay. By the time Revelation 13 arrives, all the world will have either taken the mark of the beast and thus are condemned, (Rev 14:9) or will have chosen Christ – and be martyred in this life (Rev 20:4). By Revelation 13 it will be one, or the other. No middle ground. In the Tribulation, a person must declare for one or the other. There will be no atheism. No person saying ‘I believe what I believe, it’s private’. There will be no Islam. No Catholics. No Pope. There will only be people who are forced to take the mark to worship the beast and its image, bowing down to it (Rev 13:15-16), and people who refuse because they love Jesus. At the very end, there will be a clear choice.

The middle ground is rapidly shrinking even now, prior to the Tribulation. People are becoming entrenched in their views, for or against Jesus. Are you with the One True God, the God who shakes the world? Or are you not? Time is drawing to a close, possibly through death with the choice taken away from you and your final fate sealed forever. Or you may live on a while longer, waffling until after the rapture, when coming to the Lord will be hard and nearly impossible, only to end up facing the most evil beast there ever was. Please heed to the signs now. “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.” (Matthew 24:32-33).

Posted in bible jesus, earthquakes, end of days. prophecy, end time

Earthquake in Mexico today: Are there more earthquakes?

Posted on by elizabethprata

A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck today in Oaxaca, Mexico. Drudge noted the other day that despite travel warnings about the tenuous situation in Mexico for tourists, that Obama’s daughter is vacationing in Oaxaca, anyway. The article from Montreal Gazette states,

“OAXACA, Mexico – The elder daughter of U.S. President Barack Obama is spending her spring break in the historic Mexican city of Oaxaca in the company of 12 friends, a state police official said. The young tourists, including 13-year-old Malia Ann Obama, are staying at a downtown hotel in this city famous for its colonial architecture and well-preserved native American traditions, the official said. “We are here to block access to the hotel by other people and escort the vehicles that are carrying the visitors to tourism sites,” the police official told AFP under the condition of anonymity. Malia Obama and her friend are guarded by 25 U.S. Secret Service agents as well as Mexican police, the official noted.”

Though she was well protected from kidnappers, gangs, and terrorism while visiting Mexico, no one can prepare for an earthquake. Fortunately Miss Obama is all right, as are her friends.

The quake occurred today and is accompanied by many high-magnitude aftershocks.

5.1 OAXACA, MEXICO
5.1 OAXACA, MEXICO
5.3 OAXACA, MEXICO
7.4 OAXACA, MEXICO

The Mexico quake was said to be a strong one that lasted a long time. Thankfully as of this writing there are no major damages and no reports of casualties or injuries. Washington Post reports,

“A strong 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Mexico on Tuesday, shaking central and southern parts of the country, collapsing a pedestrian bridge and swaying buildings in Mexico City. Plaster fell from ceilings and windows broke in the center of the capital, but the president said there were no immediate reports of major damage. … Frightened workers and residents poured into the streets of the capital just minutes after noon local time. Telephone service was down in the city and throughout the area where the quake was felt. … In Huajuapan, Guerrero, near the epicenter, hotel owner Marco Antonio Estrada also reported shaken-up guests but no major damage. He said it was longest and strongest he ever felt. People ran out of their homes and cars.”

There was also another earthquake today, a strong one rated at 6.2 at Papua Indonesia, listed on the USGS page for quakes the last 7-days.

Every time there is a strong quake, blog hits spike. People are curious about the connection to the end times and earthquakes. Many people wonder, is there a connection? Is there a Godly purpose to earthquakes? Yes. Yes there is.

God has used earthquakes for several reasons. Here are just a few. In the Old Testament, Mount Sinai ‘trembled violently’ before God spoke to Moses. (Exodus 19:18).

God used an earthquake to demonstrate the outcome of rebellion against Him. The ground opened, swallowing Korah and his men. (Numbers 16:31-32).

God used an earthquake to show that despite His power to create an earthquake, Elijah could also hear Him in the still, small voice. (I Kings 19:11).

The great earthquake at the time of King Uzziah was spoken of by Amos. Uzziah had grown insolent and haughty. The LORD used the earthquake to remind the king of the LORD’S power. That one was a judgment quake.

Of the Uzziah quake, scientifically, “Masonry walls best display the earthquake, especially walls with broken ashlars, walls with displaced rows of stones, walls still standing but leaning or bowed, and walls collapsed with large sections still lying course-on-course. Debris at six sites (Hazor, Deir ‘Alla, Gezer, Lachish, Tell Judeideh, and ‘En Haseva) is tightly confined stratigraphically to the middle of the eighth century B.C., with dating errors of ~30 years.…The earthquake was at least magnitude 7.8, but likely was 8.2…This severe geologic disaster has been linked historically to a speech delivered at the city of Bethel by a shepherd-farmer named Amos of Tekoa.” (source: “Steven A. Austin, Gordon W. Franz, and Eric G. Frost, “Amos’s Earthquake: An Extraordinary Middle East Seismic Event of 750 B.C.” International Geology Review 42 (2000) 657-671).”

Zechariah links the Uzziah quake’s strength to the last day quake when Jesus arrives in His second coming. As His feet land on the Mount of Olives, the mount splits in two, “Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south. Then you shall flee through My mountain valley,For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.” (Zech 14:4b-5).

In Matthew 24:7 Jesus told His disciples (and us) that in the last days there would be earthquakes in various places as one of the sings of His coming. (Mt 24:7).

In Matthew 27:51-54 when Jesus died on the cross a great earthquake occurred, splitting the Temple veil in two and resurrecting many saints from their graves. This was a vivid demonstration of His power, and as a witness to the truth that Jesus is His Son.

So if God speaks using earthquakes for His reasons, and earthquakes are an end time sign used to get man’s attention, are there indeed more earthquakes? As we get closer to the time of the rapture and afterward, the Tribulation judgments poured out in remaining unbelievers, have the number of quakes risen as one would expect? Yes.

Click to enlarge.

Using USGS data, I searched for the number of quakes in each magnitude per year, and compared against the USGS benchmarks in the first column. One can see the number of quakes exceed the USGS average number. They have exceeded the USGS average number in each magnitude since 2009.

Please understand that whether you believe in Jesus or not, He is coming. He is Creator. He holds the title deed to the earth, all the earth is the LORD’S and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; (Psalm 24:1). He is King over you, and me. He can judge us, for who else is righteous? No, not one. He is lovingly sending earthquakes to remind us that He holds the deed to the earth and he can shake it as He wills. If you have been through an earthquake and have suffered loss or injury it doesn’t feel loving. But it is. If an earthquake makes you think of the power of the Lord and of eternal things, and brings you to Him, that is loving. If you experience an earthquake and think of these things and decide that you hate God or you don’t believe, that is loving too, because He gave you a chance to decide.

As the LORD said to Ezekiel about His messages, “As for them, whether they listen or not– for they are a rebellious house– they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (Ez 2:5). Those who are experiencing all the earth signs and the Christian warnings from people like me and others, then whether you listen or you don’t listen, you will know on the last day that God did everything possible to speak to your heart and offer you a way to salvation from His wrath. He sent the Law, He sent the Prophets. He sent His son. He sent His apostles. He sent His witnesses. He sent the Spirit. He sent His word. He sent signs and told us ahead of time.

In Matthew 24:25, in the same passage where He announced that there would be earthquakes in various places as a sign of His coming, and described the many other signs, a bit further on He said, ““Behold, I have told you in advance.” This is so that when the things begin to happen, we know His word is true, and we can “Look up, for our Redemption draweth nigh!” (Luke 21:28.)

Posted in end time, leonard ravenhill, prophets

Send us prophets!

Posted on by elizabethprata

Picture of a Prophet
By Leonard Ravenhill
The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.

Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, “No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected.” The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his “brand name.”

The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him “Man of the year” when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!

The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, “has almost always been that of recovery.”

The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally “otherworldly.”
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a “seer” who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a “thus saith
the Lord.”
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of
impending judgment.
He lives in “splendid isolation.”
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is “repent, be reconciled to God or else…!”
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with
epitaphs when dead.
He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few “make the grade” in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint
by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of
Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.
He talks to men about God.
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men.
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in
the marketplace.
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.

Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet!

I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the “seven years of plenty” are over for us. The “seven years of famine” are ahead. But the greatest famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11).

Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years. Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital contribution. “Come-outers” have “come out” and settled, too, without a nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound. Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT where, oh where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from the holy place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and sick spirituality?

GOD’S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH. They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by history.

There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable.

Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.
Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and
stagnant “churchianity.”
Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle.
Let him, too, say and live, “This ONE thing I do.”
Let him reject ecclesiastical favors.
Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting, nonself- righteous,
nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting.
Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which will move
men to God.
Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has
received the order of the day.
Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the
clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.
Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision
no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses to lead us from the
wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where
enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.

God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!

“Copyright (C) 1994 by Leonard Ravenhill.”

Posted in end of days. prophecy, end time

Valentine’s Day Massacre

Posted on by elizabethprata

The ‘Saint Valentine’s Day massacre’ in reality refers to a 1929 murder of 7 mob associates in Chicago during Prohibition. But last night it referred to me! Working in a kindergarten during Valentine’s Day means noise, cupcakes, washing icing off hair and earlobes (they eat messy) and generally being busy and then tired. When I got home last night I fell asleep on the couch from 6 to 9pm! That was unprecedented for me.

At home, of course I had six or seven drafts waiting be fleshed out and published. There is so much going on in the prophetic world, and I was looking forward to coming home and studying, and writing. I love my evenings because of that. I truly love this blog and writing about Jesus and the things happening in the world that show how active He is in it. But the blessing is that when I woke up and studied my bible, and I got fascinated for an hour, because I came across a verse that changed my perspective on end time activity.

“Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

We often skip to the part where everything goes under Jesus’ feet, but look at the first part. Jesus gives it all back to God. This verse put a punctuation on the end that now allows other things to fall into place, for me. Tonight when I get home, God willing and a nap doesn’t happen, lol, and if I get it done before church, I’ll flesh this out.
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