Category: end time

Posted in end time, israel, prophecy

Israel Air Force shoots down UFO

Posted on by elizabethprata

Israel Defense Force reports today: “IAF Intercepted a Suspicious Flying Object“
“An Israel Air Force fighter jet shot down a suspicious object flying near the southern Red Sea on Thursday (Dec. 16), after it was determined that the object posed a threat to buildings in the area including the nearby Dimona (southern Israel) plant. Army Radio stated in a later report that only after the IAF’s southern air-control unit determined the flying object was in a closed airspace, was unmanned and had no reason to be hovering where it was the IAF shot it down.”

Dimona is reputed to be the nuclear plant for Israel, though Israel has in place a firm plan of nuclear ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying the plant’s function. It was only the second time since the Second Lebanon War that the Air Force used interception and comes at a time of heightened tensions between Israel and her neighbors.

We are all on tenterhooks as to when the last battles before the rapture will take place. We know that there will be in the form of Damascus destroyed (Isaiah 17:1) Neighbors of Israel warring (Psalm 83), and Ezekiel 38-39 (Iran, Turkey and Russia et al attack Israel). We just don’t know for sure when, or in what order. But it will happen.

Since Israel is in the forefront of God’s work in the last days before the rapture and all throughout the tribulation, we always look out for that blessed nation and see what is happening. A drone, unmanned balloon, or any flying object over Israel’s nuke plant is something to take note of.  So what is the state of things militarily and otherwise in Israel with her neighbors? We turn to Joel C. Rosenberg, a Christian insider who knows quite a bit of what is going on. He recently attended a conference on “Confronting The Iran Threat,” organized by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank and there, Rosenberg gave his year end threat analysis:

“As we end 2010, my sense is that the Stuxnet computer virus which has infected more than 30,000 Iranian computers and brought Iranian enrichment of uranium almost to a standstill for the time being, the recent assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist, the near assassination of another top Iranian nuclear scientist, and the effect of new economic sanctions are all having a significant impact. Anything is possible, of course, but some experts I’m talking to believe that there is a little more breathing room, and an Israeli strike would be generally unlikely before the fall of 2011, at the earliest. That is speculation, to be sure. The threat is very real.”

Iran is chomping at the bit to attack Israel, especially after losing face with the damage done by the Stuxnet computer virus. Hezbollah and Hamas are being armed continually by Iran and Syria continues her chemical warfare experiments.  The Syrian Presidential adviser blames the Iranian nuke scientists’ deaths on Mossad assassinations, we learn that without preconditions, “France to send Lebanon 100 anti-tank missiles” while  Israel’s Haaretz newspaper editors simply wonder “Is the Middle East on the threshold of collapse?“

Why yes, yes it is on the verge of collapse. As a matter of fact the Middle East will collapse- EXCEPT for Israel. It is a near thing, but in the very end of the Tribulation, the LORD saves His nation. The countries and federations listed in Psalm 83 which attack Israel in the last days are her persistent enemies from all time. Richard Ritenbaugh of Bible Tools wrote: “all of these different peoples [listed as attacking Israel in Psalm 83]—Edom, Ishmael, Amalek, Moab, Ammon, Philistia, Tyre, and Assyria—are among the major players in the Middle East today. These are peoples from whom the Jihadists and the Islamic fundamentalists hail, making up what is known as the “Arab” or “Muslim world.” Today, these people inhabit the nations of Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, etc., and the pseudo-nation of Palestine.”

It was into this tense atmosphere that an unmanned drone, balloon, or unidentified flying object flew. The Israel Air Force has not found remnants yet, but they sure are looking. They want to know what it was and from that, why it was flying over restricted airspace. The tensions, hatreds, and uncertainties in the Middle East will only worsen, until there will be no doubt to the answer to Haaretz’s question, “Is the Middle East on the threshold of collapse?”
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Posted in edwin ramos, end of the world, end time, harold camping, prophecy

No, the end of the world will likely not be May 2011

Posted on by elizabethprata

Christians like Edwin Ramos are badly misinformed, it is sad to say. I love when Christians study their bible, but this is something gone terribly awry. The New Jersey Star-Ledger article yesterday, Bridgeton billboard: World will end in May 2011, makes me cringe in sorrow. It starts:

“Edwin Ramos wants everybody to know that the world is going to end May 21, 2011. That is why he is leasing billboards across Cumberland County and printing that very message on them. There are currently three billboards, located in front of Ramos’s house on Oak Drive, in Vineland; on Delsea Drive, in Vineland, and in front of the Dollar &; Up store on Route 49 coming into Bridgeton from Millville. They bear the message, “Judgment Day, May 21, 2011, THE BIBLE GUARANTEES IT”, in addition to a crossed out “2012”.

In the past, Mr Ramos has advocated staying away from church and studying the bible on your own. Eschewing church for private study is not biblical, the Lord said we are to gather with other saints to encourage and to learn. (Hebrews 10:25; Romans 12:10 for two of many examples). Gathering with saints is a way to keep us on track, doctrinally and morally. Quiet time in study with the Holy Spirit is desirable and commended, but abandoning gathering with the saints allows incorrect  belief to settle in, and needed corrections to be unmade. Always there needs to be a balance.

The first off-track notion that Mr Ramos propounds on this billboard is the statement that God guarantees the world will end in 2011. It is a good example of a little information going a long way toward misinformation. God does declare that He will burn this world and the heavens with fire and then renew it. (2Peter 3:10; Rev 21:1). But God nor Jesus say when that will be. As a matter of fact, it is repeatedly stated that the last day will not be known to anyone on earth (Matt. 24:36; Matt. 24:42; Matt. 24:44; Matt. 24:50; Matt. 25:13…) How anyone can claim to know when the world will end to such specificity as Mr Ramos is biblically, secularly, morally, intellectually, and in all other ways, impossible.

As for the circle with the year 2012 crossed out, well, we are not competing with secular notions. Worldly culture is false and their notions of just about anything are also false. God is supreme, He needs not bend to our false thoughts, correct secular paradigms, nor scurry to prove one over another. He sent us the bible and that is all the information we need to know to establish a perfect foundation for a good life in Him.

I admire Christians who sacrifice to share the Good News of Jesus and the fact of His imminent return, as Mr Ramos is doing. But to do so on your own strength, without the humility necessary to attend a gathering of the saints and learn from each other and stand for possible correction, is dangerous. In the end, that kind of message does more to close people’s ears than open them. Therein lay the tragedy.

Thirdly, Ramos has absorbed his ideas from a false prophet named Harold Camping, who broadcasts on a cultish radio show. I can safely name Mr Camping as a false prophet because his followers continue to listen to Camping despite the fact that he was wrong in his previous prediction of the end of the world in 1994. The bible says that if one claims to know the secret things of God and to speak for God and is wrong even once, he is false (Deut 18:22). However, this same bible warns us that at the end of the age there will be many false prophets and they will be successful. (Mt 24:11; 2Peter 2:1; 1John 4:1). We are also told that many will follow these false prophets and prefer their false doctrines. True prophets are always in harmony with the scriptures and so will their doctrines be. One has to neglect, forget, abandon, or plainly ignore many bible verses in order to make a claim as to when the end of the world will come, date-specific.

It is a testament to satan’s success that he takes a truth (the world will end) and makes it into a lie (the world will end on May 21, 2011). But again, here the bible forewarns us: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:25).

Other famous false doctrines making the rounds are the world ending on the Blood Moon scenario promoted by Mark Biltz, the false pronouncements that Christians will go through all or part of the rapture (corrected here by bible teacher John MacArthur), and the rapture occurring on the Feast of Tabernacles. As prophetic interest rises among the congregations, and as pastors fumble and fail to preach this important ministry, wayward Christians go off and seek to slake their thirst for the things of the end, which is good,  but fall into snares and pits, which satan lays for them. No one knows when the rapture will be and no one knows when the last moment of earth will be. We can know the season by watching the signs he said would happen, but we will not know the date.

Christian, when you study in your private time, first remember to pray to the Holy Spirit for wisdom. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:13; 1 Cor 2:13). “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you” and that is the key. Is what you are promoting really truth that brings glory unto the Father? His glory is all that matters, and our actions must shine back toward Him. As a believing Christian, I want to make sure that what I shine isn’t a dark blot on Him but a light that is from Him. I hope you do the same… Engage in prayerful study, congregate with the saints, and beware false doctrine.
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Posted in end time, end time. prophecy, portugal, shortages, sugar

JP Morgan corners the market on copper

Posted on by elizabethprata

Portugal ran out of sugar this week. I am not making this up. No, it is not because everyone is baking for Christmas, although the seasonal baking spike did hasten the predicted shortage. On December 12, Portuguese media reported, “There is no sugar on the shelves of most supermarkets across the country.  A surveillance done by the ‘Journal News’ in Porto, Lisbon, Braga, Aveiro, Viana and Tras-os-Montes brought confirmation: the shelves are empty and nobody knows when it will be replenished the supply. Since Thursday that some supermarkets have not received sugar and rationing does not appear to have been enough to prevent the collapse of stocks.”

Today, it is reported, “Portugal Tries to Prevent Sugar Hoarding Amid Shortage, FT Says”
“Portugal faces a sugar shortage, the first European country to find itself in this position in more than three decades, the Financial Times reported. Agriculture Minister Antonio Serrano asked people not to hoard the commodity after a breakdown in imports to refineries led to a run on supplies in the shops, the newspaper said. Global sugar prices have reached a 30-year high.”

I’ve been noting in my prophecy newsletter (sent by email) of the impact the adverse weather is taking on worldwide basic commodities. Wheat stocks globally have taken a hit as the last two years have seen a dramatic increase in drought and also UG99, a virulent wheat rust pestilence ruining 99% of crops it infects. Prices are derived from what is called a “basket” of basic commodities. The basket contains everyday products such as food, clothing, furniture and financial services. Prices on some of the basics are spiking dramatically, as anyone who has recently purchased milk, bread, eggs, cooking oil, or salt and sugar knows. But now the issue is not only of climbing prices, but a perfect storm (long in the making) of weather, price, unemployment, and shortages coming together to create a new climate of scarcity that has not been seen in First World countries for over 30 or 40 years.

Coffee is in a shortage, and that article asks the question as to whether it is time to start hoarding coffee beans. Cooking oil prices are spiking and there are reports of shortages (palm oil, too). Portugal’s sugar shortage was mentioned above, milk in in shortage in Serbia and Israel, among other places. Israel Faces Worst Butter Shortage In Country’s History. Britain’s egg production has declined by 50% and are in a shortage now. In India’s major rice production area, Bihar, production has declined  50% and spot shortages have appeared.

It’s not just food that is beginning to show strains of short supply. JP Morgan either knows or suspects something. This month it was revealed that the large global financial services firm was revealed as the secret buyer of 1 Billion dollars worth of copper, more than half of the entire copper on the London Metals Exchange. Things that make you go hmmm, for sure. The International Business Times wrote, that there is a “bullish scenario for copper: rising demand, tightening supply.” “Although it might lack the glamour of more heralded commodities like oil and gold, copper is a crucial component of industry and technology and its price typically reflects the health of the underlying global economy. To underscore the concern that the markets have about copper scarcity, consider that last week the British newspaper Daily Telegraph reported that a “mystery buyer” had acquired more than $1 billion of physical copper, representing more than 50 percent of all the metal stored in official London warehouses. It was subsequently reported that the mysterious buyer was none other than U.S. banking giant J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. While this action does not quite constitute “cornering the market,” it suggests how a handful of major players taking aggressive positions in the copper market (as well as certain other commodities like nickel and aluminum alloy). The Wall Street Journal reported that J.P. Morgan said it purchased the copper mostly on behalf of clients. Incidentally, the London Metal Exchange said that its warehouses currently hold about 350,000 tons of copper, down from 555,000 in February. Copper stockpiles have been in sharp decline all year, on schedule for the first annual drop since 2004.”

Edward Yardeni, Chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research, said on Bloomberg TV that copper prices can double in 2011. He thinks there will be a shortage of copper. He calls copper a ‘rare earth metal’ because there are no substitutes for it in products like cars and home appliances. Speaking of rare earth metals, “In 1997, Deng Xiaoping, the former general secretary of the Communist Party in China, announced that China would be, for rare earth metals, what the Middle East was for oil. At the time, it seemed too distant a reality to draw much concern. A draft report form China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released late last month, however, could set off the alarm bells in boardrooms around the world.” China has in fact, cornered the rare earth metals market. The US Energy Department said in a report released today, that it “will Take 15 Years to Break Dependence on Chinese Metals“. We will have to rely on China for the majority of supplies. Since Xiaoping declared China’s intention all those years ago, they now in fact manufacture 93% of all rare earth metals, and can essentially hold the rest of the world hostage to a myriad of daily necessities.

So as you can see, the basic things we need to sustain our lives on earth are becoming scarce, hoarded, or cornered. There will still be wealth on the earth during the Tribulation, but it will be in the hands of the few. Revelation 18 is the judgment chapter, where the world’s false economy finally crumbles. It shows clearly that there had been a vigorous trade in luxury items, but only the wealthy could afford them. As for the poor, they scramble for bread while the oil and wine are not touched. (Rev 6:6)

In Revelation 18:3, we learn that “merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.” In Revelation 18:11, sales are gone. Rev 8:12a, trade in valuable items are gone. Rev 18:12b, furniture trade is gone. In Revelation 18:13-14,  agriculture of wine, olive oil and other luxury spices and fruit finally goes kaput. And so the rest of the chapter continues in like manner.

So you read of scarcity and shortages and indeed the weather and the Lord’s hand are certainly taking a toll. Death by famine will come for many millions (Rev 6:8). The rich won’t care. (Amos 5:11; James 5:4). Far from the supposed equitable shift in wealth that today’s socialists claim to want to make, in reality, there will be a massive shift in wealth but it will be from most of the world to a few in the world. The poor will die. The rich will laugh. The money transfer has begun. The wealth skew has begun. Shortages have begun. Are you ready?

The wealth of the world will be present during the tribulation but even the rich will weep in the end, for their wealth will have turned to rust (Mt 6:19; James 5:3; Rev 18:14). As for the poor, shortages and pathetic lives spent scrambling for a crumb awaits them. Born-again believers will have wealth unimaginable forever. We will have food and warmth and friendship and a banquet with the King.The grace of Jesus is that He allows you to choose your destiny.The high standard of living of the Church Age is declining. The wealth and luxury of the Tribulation age will be oh-so-fleeting. True wealth: JESUS, lasts forever. Decide soon!
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Posted in end time, if you see something, prophecy, say something

Loose lips SAVE ships?

Posted on by elizabethprata

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.” (Matthew 10:21)

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” (2Tim 3:1-5)

The climate in the tribulation will be of suspicion, brutality, and guiltiness before innocence. The two verses above indicate that without a doubt, no relationship will be immune to betrayal of the grossest kind. Not only will strangers not care for each other, not only friends will lack compassion for each other, but even the closest familial bonds of parent and child will break down, with finger pointing that will result in death.

Ever since satan approached Eve and not Adam, he has attacked and tried to split the family. His special evils of abortion (Moloch-worship in the Old Testament days) and of homosexuality were attacks against the family unit and of God’s special commandment to be fruitful and multiply. Once the nuclear family unit is broken then society’s most important bond, the glue in its foundation, is fractured beyond repair.

The verses above tell us that such a fracture beyond repair is coming.

Since the Patriot Act’s passage in America after the terrorist event of September 11, 2001, the inexorable slide from the default standard innocent until proven guilty has shifted to a default position of suspicion reigns and you are probably guilty. Even the legitimate act of profiling has fallen by the wayside as a method of identifying likely criminals. (Profiling: “the extrapolation of information about something, based on known qualities.”) The outcome of suspending profiling changes our mentality into thinking of everyone as a possible criminal. After all, if only some are not suspicious, then we all must be suspicious.

One example of the eventual outcome of this is the recent anger toward the Transportation Safety Administration’s (TSA) practice of subjecting all Americans to a naked body scan and/or and enhanced pat down (read: physical molestation). Every American that passes through the airport is now under suspicion, even children, though to my knowledge no child in America has ever been used as a suicide bomber.

Another extension of the new suspicion mentality is the Department of Homeland Security’s new ‘spy on your neighbor’ program. That is not its real name, of course, its real name is “If you see something, say something.” Its aim is to partner with Wal-Mart “to engage the public and key frontline employees to identify and report indicators of terrorism, crime and other threats to the proper transportation and law enforcement authorities.” We are not allowed to profile but we are allowed to be suspicious of anyone and everyone who may indicate that are possibly doing something suspicious. Right.

The civic results of the Patriot Act, the Big Brother Government, Google Street View, The Information Age, and the Surveillance Nation mentality are well-documented. The law enforcement results are also well-documented (tasers). But the mental results of a heightened climate of increased suspicion, pitting neighbor against neighbor and expecting terror at any moment are not well-documented. But today’s climate of suspicion, over-reliance on government and terror before justice are coming home to roost, and the public that is left behind will live those results. Silence used to mean security. Now it means you become a target. We have come a long way from “Loose lips sink ships” to “If you see something, say something.”

This inexorable slide away from civic restraint and individual responsibility leads to mutual and complete suspicion. It is what the Tribulation is all about, the pendulum swinging its full course. The Tribulation a time when the Lord is giving unbelievers their desire: a godless society, free from any restraint. It will be a total moral breakdown, a total societal breakdown and a total familial breakdown. Can you imagine a society where the norm will be what Jesus described in Matthew 10, with son, father, parents betraying each other unto death? Unfortunately, those who do not believe will not have long left to imagine. They will soon live it.

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Posted in christmas, end time, entertain angels unaware, prophecy

Angels we have heard on high

Posted on by elizabethprata

You know this Christmas hymn, I’m sure:

“Angels we have heard on high”
Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains.
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

Now the bible isn’t saturated with information about angels but there is a good bit of information about them. They are created beings whose created purpose was to minister to humans. (Hebrews 1:14). When they were created, we do not know. They also serve the Lord at His throne, so they could have been created billions of years ago as we count our time, or they could have been created just before He made humans. We do know that at the three critical junctures of God’s revealed plan for the world, they burst into song, proclamation, and exhortation, in jubilation of the work that God is doing. They burst through the veil between earth and highest heaven, to make His work known.

They sang as God laid the foundation of the world, referred to here as they often were, as the “sons of God”:

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7)

They proclaimed when Jesus was born: 

“In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,  “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:8-14)

And finally, angels will exhort during the Tribulation. Three of them will fly around the earth  preaching and exhorting and warning:

“Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth–to every nation, tribe, language and people. A second angel followed and said, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. ” (Revelation 14:6-10a)

Three times they burst in, at the beginning, the middle and the end of this age. God cares for us SO much, He created angels to minister to us before He even made us, or the world. He cares for us so much that He sent His son to satisfy the sin debt and make a way for us to be with Him. He cares for us so much He sends angels to warn and proclaim the gospel to every creature on earth. He is a mighty God and a Loving God.

I hope that your eternal destination to be with Him is secure. I hope that you have recognized His holiness and our sinfulness, and asked Him forgiveness for your sins. Otherwise, the default destination for you is to receive your wish: permanent separation from him in hell. Hell was originally designed for Lucifer and the fallen angels, (Mt 25:41) but he widened its mouth to receive those humans who would also rebel against Him in refusing the remedy of Jesus’ forgiveness. (Is 5:14). Instead, because of Jesus’ birth as a babe, His sinless life on earth, His obedient death, and miraculous resurrection- we can sing in exultation that we are saved! We are His!

Gloria in Excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the highest!

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Posted in Austrian MP Ewald Stadler adresses Turkish Ambassador, end time, ewald stadler, prophecy

Austrian MP speaks out against persecution & murder of Christians by Muslims in Turkey

Posted on by elizabethprata

In German, subtitled. Five minutes. WATCH WATCH WATCH. I just wish our own leaders had the courage to point a finger at the leader of a Muslim nation and demand his removal on the grounds of hypocrisy and murder.

Austrian MP Ewald Stadler Addresses Turkish Ambassador, and States Some Home Truths About The Persecution of Christians In Turkey

“Like many countries where the culture is based on Islam, persecution of non-Muslims has been and apparently still is practiced. Western elites are always criticising those who are opposed to Islamisation and asking them what they have to fear from Islamisation. The answer is the fear of persecution, harassment, and inequality before the law! The real question is why do Western elites hate the West and its people, and why are they always trying to undermine Western Civilisation while at the same time promoting Islam. It is great to see an Austrian MP standing up and telling an inconvenient truth that the great and the good obviously don’t like. He has joined a growing list of people who have stood up and spoken out on this subject. Many more voices will inevitably follow as increasing numbers of people begin to come to their senses.”

Stadler says in the clip, “I tell you, this country is not entirely made of of ‘tolerance romantics’. There are also people who are sick of the one-way street tolerance babble.”

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Posted in end time, faith, prophecy

Making a faith commitment to Christ

Posted on by elizabethprata
Feeling a little put out this Christmas season? Getting a little anxious about the office party? Well, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” Hebrews 12:4
apostates hanged in Iran

The above verse is from Hebrews 12, but it continues a thought begun in Hebrews 11 (or even the latter part of Hebrews 10). Hebrews 11 is known as the great faith chapter and one of the bible’s more famous verses begins it: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1)

The author continues listing the Great Faithful Ones; Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Barak, Samson, and more. They went out in faith in God’s promises, Abraham not even knowing where he was going. (Heb 11:8). They made a faith decision to live a life in God based on trust.

Have you made that same commitment? Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength? Do you love Him unto the point of shedding your blood? Iran is hanging people, many of them  apostates (converting from Islam to Christianity.) Here is one pastor’s story, he was sentenced on Nov 26 to hang.

Are you bold enough to live on a promise? Are you strong enough to live knowing you will not see it fulfilled this side of heaven? Faith is the evidence of things as yet unseen. As yet. You WILL see them. Do not weaken under pressure until your faith becomes sight. And remember, pressure to buy a bigger gift for Christmas is not really pressure at all.

So as the Christmas season winds up, and you hustle and bustle here and there, and you get irritated in the grocery line…or you get worried about the perfect present…or you smolder because your melon balls aren’t round enough, remember to read Hebrews 11, and even 12. They will put things back into perspective.

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Posted in end time, prophecy

Heaven and nature sing, and repeat the sounding joy

Posted on by elizabethprata

Did you ever stop to really consider the words to the Christmas hymn, “Joy to the World”? I’ll paste the first two stanzas and continue below:

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

Heaven sings. But how can nature sing? And how can fields, floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the joy that nature sings? Let’s look at some other, similar language and examples from the bible of nature doing just that:

In Luke 19:40, the Pharisees were aghast at the outpouring of adulation toward Jesus when “…the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: ” (Luke 19:37b) The Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”(Luke 19:39). “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 39:40).

Matthew Henry says of that verse, “Whether men praise Christ or no he will, and shall, and must be praised (v. 40): If these should hold their peace, and not speak the praises of the Messiah’s kingdom, the stones would immediately cry out, rather than that Christ should not be praised. This was, in effect, literally fulfilled, when, upon men’s reviling Christ upon the cross, instead of praising him, and his own disciples’ sinking into a profound silence, the earth did quake and the rocks rent.” 

Another instance of nature somehow becoming verbal is from Romans:

“For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” (Romans 8:22).” Can creation groan? Barnes’ notes says

“And travaileth in pain together – This expression properly denotes the extreme pain of parturition. It also denotes any intense agony, or extreme suffering; and it means here that the condition of all things has been that of intense, united, and continued suffering; in other words, that we are in a world of misery and death. This has been united; all have partaken of it: it has been intense; all endure much: it has been unremitted; every age has experienced the repetition of the same thing.”

In Isaiah, we see another example of how nature reflects the glory of the Lord and point to us as to how we should reflect it also: “Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, He displays His glory in Israel.” (Isaiah 44:23 NIV)

The expressions of nature itself crying out is figurative, strongly figurative. As Barnes’ Notes say, “The expression here seems to be “proverbial,” and is not to be taken literally. Proverbs are designed to express the truth “strongly,” but are not to be taken to signify as much as if they were to be interpreted literally. The sense is, that his coming was an event of so much importance that it “ought” to be celebrated in some way, and “would” be celebrated. It would be impossible to restrain the people, and improper to attempt it. The language here is strong proverbial language to denote that fact. We are not to suppose, therefore, that our Saviour meant to say that the stones were “conscious” of his coming, or that God would “make” them speak, but only that there was “great joy” among the people; that it was “proper” that they should express it in this manner, and that it was not fit that he should attempt to repress it.”

So, no, little grass blades do not have a mouth that opens and sings and proclaims the glory of God. The fields do not ululate in joyful adulation at His soon return, and upcoming release from the burden of the curse. For nature, it is impossible to restrain their joy. With humans, we all too often restrain it. We drag around grousing over the petulant colleague, or the air conditioning in church or the car that has lost its new car smell. We should mirror the creation in how it declares His glory. We sing for the Redemption soon to come. We praise for the creation that will experience lifted curse. We shout to the heavens that the babe is born. We cry out that He is risen, lives, and loves us. We acknowledge His creation, even the stones, and sing out! He soon comes!

We are blessed to be the terminal generation who will not die but be changed in an instant, putting aside corruptible flesh for incorruptible glorified bodies. We will dine with the King. We will watch Him renew the earth to its perfection. We will live where there is no sin. If I was a blade of grass, I would cry out at that! Do you repeat the sounding joy?

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Posted in end time, prophecy, wheel within a wheel

The machinery of heaven

Posted on by elizabethprata

When we think of heaven, we often think of the emotions we will feel in heaven. Foremost in many Christians’ hearts is our reunion with the risen Jesus in the flesh. We know Him now by faith, but up there we will know Him by sight. We think of the love that will abound, and the crushing dazzle that will envelop us. We also think of the people we will reunite with, people we were heart-breakingly separated in time and space from husbands, wives, children, parents, friends.

Some Christians go further in their thoughts, when they dwell on heavenly things, envisioning the city of New Jerusalem (which descends from heaven). Puzzling over the transparent street of gold (street is singular in the Rev 21:21 verse), thinking of the animals that will be peaceful, pondering the upcoming beauty and majesty of the surroundings described in the few verses that present a physical picture of New Jerusalem to us.

But did you ever think of the machinery of heaven? Machinery is a strange word to think of being in heaven, because the word machines bring to mind oil and drip pans and messiness and noise, none of which meshes with a peaceful and perfect heaven. But if you never think of machinery in heaven, you haven’t read Ezekiel 1.

Ezekiel’s Inaugural Vision

In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin— the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the LORD was on him.

I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four of them had faces and wings, and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.

Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. They each had two wings spreading out upward, each wing touching that of the creature on either side; and each had two other wings covering its body. Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went. The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning.

As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.

When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked something like a vault, sparkling like crystal, and awesome. Under the vault their wings were stretched out one toward the other, and each had two wings covering its body. When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.

lapis lazuli

Then there came a voice from above the vault over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
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Well! That was some inaugural vision! Did you notice the moment when Ezekiel saw the wheel beside the creature, and that the creature was in the heaven (sky) and the wheel was on the ground? I envision the the heavenly realms and the earth as connected, the wheels of heaven rotating and the creature moving as the Spirit led and the wheels beside him moving too. Machinery. Incredible, unexplainable machinery.

The other unexplainable thing to this is that we GET TO GO THERE! We will see this creature. We will see the throne and the rainbow of lapis above. We will be with Jesus, yes. We will reunite with loved ones, yes. We will meet martyrs and missionaries and Apostles and just plain folks there, yes. But we will see God in all His glory and His works, too! His wonders to behold. He will give us glorified eyes so that we CAN behold them. He is marvelous and merciful indeed. Are you getting impatient to see all this? I am! I can’t wait!
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Posted in amos, end time, end time. prophecy, fires, gray whale Israel coast

Does Amos’s prophecy have application for what’s happening in Israel today?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Did you know that some of biblical prophecy could be interpreted to have a partial fulfillment in the distant past and another completion in the future? Some prophesies were filled only once (Zechariah 9:9). Some were given a long time ago and are pending, they still have only one fulfillment in the future. (Isaiah 17:1). But some prophesies actually have a parallel track that can be applied to modern times. Why? God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and what He was concerned about in the past He is concerned about in these times. If He warned and judged for lackluster worship in the past, He will again. If he warned and judged about greed, truce-breaking, false idols, and oppression in the past, He will again. Just because Amos’s day has passed does not mean no one is an oppressor. Just because prophesies given in the past became fulfilled, does not mean the cycle bad behavior and proper repentance, warning and judgment, cease.

Take Amos, for example. What he warned the Israelites about in 750 BC are things that are again occurring today and so we should be concerned about them today.

Amos prophesied in 750BC or so. He spoke God’s Word at a time when the Israelites were enjoying success, which they equated to wealth. As for wealth, they equated it to God’s favor. Just as today we have the prosperity gospel false ideology, so in the past the Jews mistakenly thought that wealth meant they were all set with God and could coast. They relaxed their spiritual duties and God was not pleased.

God was actually looking unfavorably on them. Their worship had become hollow, it was religiosity without heart. God sent Amos to warn them. Amos 1 begins:

“He said, “The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers.” (Amos 1:2)

Amos, being a sheepherder, knew the sound of the lion. It was a prevalent predator in his day and many a sheep were lost to it while shepherds stood helplessly by, able to do nothing. When the lion roars, he means business. His roar, notoriously loud, is meant to startle. The metaphor is meant to startle awake the Israelites to the warning of the lion.

The lion “thundering from Jerusalem” has two metaphors. The first is thunder, which acts the same way as the lion’s roar. Thunder presages a storm. When you hear it, you perk up and you know the storm is on its way. Thundering from Jerusalem means that the LORD  is reminding His people from whence true worship stems.

The “pastures of the shepherds dry up” is simply drought. God is not an absentee landlord. He is active and He sends or withholds rain. Israel today has been experiencing the worst drought in their modern history. For five years rainfall has been a record low levels. All the storage tanks indicate below red marks. Just to give an example, the average rainfall for Jerusalem in November is 60mm. This November, they got 7. ‘The pastures of the shepherds dry up…’ Is it a coincidence that their worst drought in the modern era coincides with a fallen Israel, straying from worship? I do not believe so.

Wildfires broke out this week at Mt. Carmel forest. The Carmel forest is a verdant area of Israel. The area is held up in the bible as the ideal of fertility and beauty. For the “top of Carmel to wither” would be devastating indictment indeed.

Amos prophesied that God was about to raise up the pagan nations around Israel to judge her and them. Lebanon had broken treaties and colluded with Jordan (Edom). The LORD’S anger burned against Gaza because they had deported an entire population. God was angry with Syria for their incessant warlike actions. Greed was the watchword of the day and Israel’s enemies had dragged Israel into a sour economy. The Lord would send fire to the walls of Tyre.

Do you see parallels from the time of Amos with Israel today and her spiritual state? Her wealth and success has seduced her into a relaxed or even a non-existent worship. Her worship was flash over substance at best and so it is today. Her enemies are truce-breakers, greedy, deporting entire populations (Gaza) and militaristic. Even after Israel attacked and destroyed Syria’s nuke site three years ago, the Syrians have apparently rebuilt. The Jerusalem Post reported this week that a possible Syrian nuke facility has been identified by satellite. By the way, Syria has never allowed IAEA inspectors in despite pressure and entreaties by the UN to do so.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the ultra-orthodox party Shas, said this week in his address that God is judging faithless Jews who do not keep the sabbath. Iran’s Press TV reports: “An Israeli rabbi has suggested that wildfires still raging in northern Israel were God’s punishment for religious offenses committed by the area residents.” Ynet news reported “Haredi newspapers say disaster ‘a warning sign’, call for personal and public self-scrutiny” and as a result, “ultra-Orthodox newspapers called for self-scrutiny, saying the disaster was a sign from God.”

We do know that God warns before judging. The Tribulation is judgment on non-believers and on Israel. When anything destructive or cataclysmic, or miraculous, occurs in Israel, believers should sit up and take notice. When superlatives are attached to any event in Israel, such as “worst drought”, “uncontrollable wildfires”, or “worst disaster” then we should really attune to what God might be saying. When combined with indicators in the bible as to God’s standards, His warnings, and His judgment, and the events match up as a possible prophetic fulfillment, then spiritual alarm bells should be ringing in every Christian.

I advise four things:

1. Hal Lindsey’s Report this week is an excellent overview of Ezekiel’s prophesies fulfilled in regard to Israel. His 20-minute segment gives a wonderful context from which every believer should then come to the minor prophets. Part one of Hal’s segment this week, titled “Ezekiel’s Enigma,” is here and part 2 is here. If that link expires then go to Hal’s web page here.

2. Read Amos 1 with an eye toward a possible fulfillment of the prophesies today that Amos was burdened with speaking back then. If you are not of the ilk that believes in prophetic fulfillment twice, then examine the principles exhibited. Is what is happening in Israel with the drought and the fires a warning from God? If it is a warning, what were the people doing that caused God to warn them? Are we as individuals or as a nation doing those same things today? It is always worth checking ourselves to see how our walk with the Lord is going. Are we wandering? Or are we close to Him?

3. Pray for Israel! Not only are we commanded to in Psalm 122, but Jack Kelley also has an explanation of what you are really doing when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, here. Joel C. Rosenberg has specific prayer needs listed at his website, here. I copied the ones listed for 12/5/10 below:

4. Consider. Amos is written to stir the soul to action. Whether you believe that Amos’s prophesies were fulfilled once for all, or have an imminent fulfillment application for today, the bible is God’s word and it stands for all time. If you have fallen into a prosperity gospel mentality, get out. If you have succumbed to allowing your thoughts to accept division of Israel for peace, stop. If your worship has become flash over substance, shake yourself out of it. The Rabbi’s call to private and public self-scrutiny is good advice, no matter where you stand on fulfillment of prophetic theology (eschatology).

And keep looking up, for your Redemption draweth nigh!

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