Category: jesus

Posted in end time, jesus, prophecy, tolerance

Apostasy and tolerance: both are bad. Read the bible to find out more

Posted on by elizabethprata

In December, I read that the UK “census shows number of people in England and Wales who are not religious has risen to 14.1 million, almost double from 2001.”

It got me thinking about faithlessness and what we are told about in 1 Timothy 4:1

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,”

I always found it interesting that the verse reads ‘the Spirit expressly says’. In other translations it reads ‘the Spirit clearly says’, and ‘the Spirit explicitly says.’ One would think that the Spirit is always clear and expresses exactly what He wants to say. I mean, it would still be authoritative enough if the verse read “The Spirit says that in latter days…” But that adverb ‘expressly’ always gets me. In interpreting His word when I come up against something like that, I come to a full stop. If the Spirit expressly says something, then it behooves us to pay attention to it.

The Greek word for ‘expressly’ is an adverb which is a derivative of rheo, meaning “command.” OK, that’s pretty strong.

So the upshot is the Spirit commands us to know and understand that in latter days some will depart the faith.

We can rest assured, that God’s numbers are not diminishing. It isn’t a weak religion where people can come and go and God #fail. Not at all. Whom He saves is saved. If they depart from the faith they are actually demonstrating that they never belonged to God in the first place. (1 John 2:19).

Oftentimes a departure from the faith is called apostasy. We are told that apostates will increase in number just before the Second Coming (Of Jesus, Not Obama. Sorry, I had to get that in there). 2 Thessalonians 2:3 has the verse:

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,”

The Holman Bible Dictionary defines apostasy as “the act of rebelling against, forsaking, abandoning, or falling away from what one has believed.

Old Testament The Old Testament speaks of “falling away” in terms of a person’s deserting to a foreign king (2 Kings 25:11; Jeremiah 37:13-14; Jeremiah 39:9; Jeremiah 52:15). Associated ideas, however, include the concept of religious unfaithfulness: “rebellion” (Joshua 22:22); “cast away” (2 Chronicles 29:19); “trespass” (2 Chronicles 33:19); and “backslidings” (Jeremiah 2:19; Jeremiah 8:5). NAS uses “apostasy” in Jeremiah 8:5 and Hosea 14:4 with the plural in Jeremiah 2:19; Jeremiah 5:6; Jeremiah 14:7.”

It seems clear to most of us that the Lord is revealing that many who adopted a form of godliness but had denied its power (2 Timothy 3:5) are being stripped of their falsely spiritual cloak and are being revealed for whom they actually are.

An essay recently on iCNN, the citizen input channel of their news media’s online arm, recently published an essay that has reportedly garnered the second highest number of hits ever. 

Why I Raise My Children Without God

Posted on January 14, 2013, it has received 9,100 comments. Over 60,000 have recommended the essay on Facebook. A competing essay on iCNN titled “Why I raise my children WITH God”…has received a tenth of the number of comments and a third fewer recommends on Facebook.

People are apostatizing, and rapidly. The gap is widening so there can be no fence straddlers for very much longer.

We know what atheism is. It is people like the woman who wrote “Why I Raise My Children Without God”, they are people who never believed in God in any form for any time because they theorize that God does not exist. They have great faith in their theory.

It seems clear that we also know what apostasy is. It is people who (seemed to) believe for a time, and then abandoned any pretense of believing in their version of God. Muslims can apostatize. Buddhists can become apostate. But for the purposes of this essay, we are discussing people who claimed to believe in a risen Jesus as savior, but after a time, abandoned that belief and either went on to something else or simply became what they always were: atheist or agnostic.

But I have another question about who an apostate might be.

I wrote recently about old Eli, the temple priest whose record in the bible never revealed a sin that he personally committed, but he and his sons were killed for the sons’ sins. The sons were taking money from congregants, taking the choicest meats, and then taking women. Eli was not participating in this travesty, but he knew about it, and did nothing. That last thing is what God seemed upset about. The sons were killed for their part in the sinful behavior and Eli was killed because he didn’t do anything about it. (1 Samuel 2:29, 1 Samuel 3:13.)

What God said to Eli was that Eli was honoring his sons above God. I think we forget who we sin against, when we sin. All sins are against Jesus. (Psalm 51:4). The prodigal son said to his father that he’d “sinned against heaven, and against you.” (Luke 15:21)

In Revelation 2:21 Jesus said he had something against the church at Thyatira. “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.“

They knew there was sin, they knew the sin was destroying their church, and they did nothing about it. So Jesus had a condemnation for them. If it was today they would probably sit around saying “touch not God’s anointed” and “judge not” and “aren’t we so humble, in our tolerance.” Tolerance in the wrong direction is actually a sin. Think about it.

Paul condemned a situation in Corinth, where a man had his father’s wife. Paul condemned the sin and severely chastised the person performing the sin. But the church body was also chastised for tolerating it. Paul called them arrogant.

“You are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn?” (1 Corinthians 5:2)

Paul chastised them for boasting. The Corinthians were going around boasting about their gifts and their status and their works, and yet they were tolerating a gross sin. Their boasts were resting on a corrupted pedestal. If it were today, I would venture to say that they’d be boasting about their tolerance and their humility not to “judge.”

So the question is, is a person apostatizing if he tolerates gross sin but does nothing about it? Like Eli, Thyatira, and Corinth? If a person can tolerate such sins against Jesus and not do anything about it, are they actually loving Jesus as they should? Are they growing lukewarm, or even cold? If a people who actually know what sin does to a person, allows a person to continue in that sin, do they love that person if they do nothing to help them?

Does a false tolerance and an overdone spiritual correctness mean that love is growing dim? That they are apostatizing?

I don’t know if the definition of apostasy can be given to that kind of behavior. I’m just asking. I do know that Jesus condemned it the three biblical examples I used. At root, it means that they honor the sin more than they honor Jesus.

After Jesus threw out the moneylenders in the temple, “His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (Psalm 69:9; John 2:17)

Barnes Notes says, “Its meaning is, that Jesus was affected with great zeal or concern for the pure worship of God. The zeal of thine house – “Zeal” is intense ardor in reference to any object. The “zeal of thine house” means extraordinary concern for the temple of God; intense solicitude that the worship there should be pure, and such as God would approve. Hath absorbed me, or engaged my entire attention and affection; hath surpassed all other feelings, so that it may be said to be the one great absorbing affection and desire of the mind.”

No matter what the exact definition of apostasy, zeal for God should consume us. Is our worship pure? Are we intensely concerned that no leaven is spoiling the lump? (The charge Paul gave to the Corinthians in the above passages). Do we tolerate a devastating pattern of sin in our own life, or in our church? You are not doing yourself, Jesus, or your brethren any favors by adopting a false sense of humility and refusing to address obvious and entrenched sin in God’s house. The bible is clear on that.

Dearest ones who have addressed sin, or tried to, in God’s house, He understands the toll zeal takes:

“My zeal wears me out, for my enemies ignore your words.” (Psalm 119:139)

The writer of Hebrews lets us know that there is nothing Jesus hasn’t gone through first that He isn’t intimately familiar with in us. (Hebrews 2:17). He understands the toll it takes to be zealous for God, and He has made many promises to those who persevere in the purest worship they can offer, the most zeal they can give, and the best attempts at rooting out sin. Here is one of those promises-

“He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 25:8)

Take heart. He is coming soon.

Posted in forgiven, jesus, redemption, sin

Be encouraged–God DOES NOT remember your sin

Posted on by elizabethprata

My dear brethren who are laboring under the tsunami of the world’s sin, grieving over hating your own, and mourning over others’- I offer a small message of encouragement, by way of a large message from  Charles Spurgeon.

This Age of Grace is rapidly accelerating to the time of the end and the resumption of the Age of Law and wrath. Gaps are widening, we see that clearly. Believer vs. non-believer never had less in common. Poor vs rich were never more far apart. Those who are strengthening versus those who are apostasizing were never more numerous. It will all deepen and widen more tomorrow…and tomorrow… and tomorrow…

So those of us who are large in number globally but perhaps few in groupings locally, are daily made more aware of our sin. We thus are ever more knowing of our own wretched condition, which is forgiven sinner. We’re always heaping gratitude to Jesus when our sins prick up more vividly to our heart as each craven day passes. Sometimes we hate our own sin so much that we totter, weakened as we see the horrific face of it. But far better than we feel weak in our heart, fainting in knowledge of our sin, than our conscience be weak, failing to feel its prick.

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:25)

Here is the encouragement. Charles Spurgeon preached a message to his congregation in 1882, called “God’s Non-Remembrance of Sin.” Far from being antiquated or irrelevant, it is even more alive today than it was when it was delivered, I dare to say. The bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit and it’s is 2000 years old and still relevant. In the same way, any sermon delivered by wisdom of and submission to the Holy Spirit is also alive today, and fresh.

The sermon I linked to is 8 pages long and wonderfully concise and encouraging. If you are feeling low because of your sin and the state of the world, if hopelessness starting to fray the edges of your mind and heart, take hope from this sermon. Our sins are not only forgiven, but forgotten!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All too often we focus on our sin and plead with the Spirit for strength to withstand them another day. We confess and repent, and rely on His Goodness and Grace to forgive, but we still remember. He does not!

I’ll excise a few pieces of Spurgeon’s sermon for you:

“What the Law asserts, the understanding, also, supports, for within the awakened man there is the memory of his past offenses—and on account of these his conscience passes judgment upon his soul—and condemns it even as the Law does. “God must punish wickedness,” is the utterance of conscience. “He were not the judge of all the earth if He did not do right and if He does right, He must visit my transgressions with the threatened penalty.” Thus, the thunder of Sinai is echoed by conscience. Meanwhile, many natural impressions and instincts assist and increase the clamors of conscience, for the man knows within himself, as the result of observation and experience, that sin must bring its own punishment.”

“Thus, for once, the devil craftily cooperates with the Law of God and with conscience—these would drive men to despair, but Satan would go further and compel them to despair as touching the Lord, Himself, so as to believe that pardon for transgression is quite impossible.”

“With the desponding I shall try to deal at this time and may the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, help me to console them–“

“Our first theme is this—THERE IS FORGIVENESS. Our four texts all teach us that doctrine with great distinctness. Is not that a sublime assurance, “I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins”? Does not Paul put it sweetly as from God’s own mouth, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Remember how the Psalmist, in the 130th Psalm makes this a special note of thanksgiving “There is forgiveness with You that You may be feared.” Let us adore the Lord because He delights in mercy!”

“Secondly, THIS FORGIVENESS IS TANTAMOUNT TO FORGETTING SIN. This is a wonder to me, a wonder of wonders—that God should say that He will do what, in some sense, He cannot do—that He should use speech which includes an impossibility and yet that it should be strictly true as He intends it. God’s pardon of sin is so complete that He, Himself, describes it as not remembering our iniquity and transgression.”

“The Great Father’s heart is not brooding over the injuries we have done—His infinite mind is not revolving within itself the tale of our iniquities. Ah, no! If we have fled to Christ for refuge, the Lord remembers our sin no more! The record of our iniquity is taken away and the Judge has no judicial memory of it. Sometimes you have almost forgotten a thing and it is quite gone out of your mind—but an event happens which recalls it so vividly that it seems as if it were perpetrated but yesterday. God will not recall the sin of the pardoned.”

“I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake,
and will not remember your sins.”
Isaiah 43:25.
“For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Jeremiah 31:34.
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more.”
Hebrews 8:12.
“And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
Hebrews 10:17.

Please take heart, beleaguered ones! Please do read all of Spurgeon’s gem. Spurgeon ends it this way:

“Always repent and always praise the Lord. Honor the forgetfulness of God in not remembering your faults and, from now on, tell this blessed news to everyone you see—there is forgiveness, such forgiveness as was never heard of until God, Himself, revealed it by saying of His people, “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” God bless you dear Friends, from now on and forever. Amen.”

photo credit: Sukanto Debnath via photopin cc

Posted in jesus, salvation

Kendrick Johnson’s sad death

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’m listening to John MacArthur’s latest sermon, John 3:1-3, “Jesus Teaches the Teacher.” What a blessing this pastor is to the global believing church! This sermon is wonderful, wonderful.

I’m cooking scrambled eggs for supper and preparing the last notes on the Wed night bible study I attend. We are looking at Colossians 3:18-25. It opens with “Wives, submit to your husbands…” Should prove to be a good discussion. 😉

We are supposed to get a winter storm coming through tomorrow afternoon and overnight. Friday is supposed to be sleety and rainy cold and generally yucky. Thursday is my usual day to grocery shop but in advance of the storm I went to get groceries today. (And yes, I bought milk and bread, lol).

That cramped down my time between work and church to do a blog entry. I’m looking at so much to write about, but I can’t do it justice in the next hour. I will relate a quick story though.

Here in Georgia there was a tragedy. A young high school athlete died suddenly…and weirdly. Kendrick Johnson climbed a roll of wrestling mats in the gym after hours, they dislodged, and he tumbled down, upside down, inside them. He hung there, all night…until he died. They found his body the next morning.

When you hang upside down for a long period of time, the extremities lose their blood and rushes to the head, you pass out, and eventually stroke and/or heart failure follows, says the article. It must have been incredibly scary for that young man to hang there, trapped. Alone. In the dark. And then to die.

No one expects to die when they do, except for perhaps people with long-term diseases. Certainly the 17-year old boy didn’t think that was his last day on earth. Johnathan Edwards preached in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God the Deuteronomy 32:35 verse “Their foot shall slip in due time.” This means that as you slip on the ice as you’re walking on a winter’s day, suddenly you are not standing but splayed out flat on the sidewalk. Boom! You’re down. That has happened to me. It happens fast. In spiritual terms, God is holding you up and suddenly your foot slips and you are catapulted into your eternal destiny.

Maybe you have been approached by someone asking you about church…or if you know Jesus. These things niggle at you but you put off thinking about it more because, after all, tomorrow is another day. These things niggled at Nicodemus, the teacher of all Israel. He had reached the height of his religion and yet he was troubled by a feeling that maybe he wasn’t right with God. He sought out Jesus and asked of Him what he should do. (John 3:1-21)

Maybe you have been meaning to approach someone who is on your heart to share the Gospel with them. You’ve been meaning to give out that tract in your wallet. You’ve been meaning to pick up the phone. But suddenly, they die. And you never get that chance again.

Jesus is such a great treasure. Please share Him.

“For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Posted in goliath, jesus, phil robertson

Take umbrage, Brethren!

Posted on by elizabethprata

We don’t take umbrage at the rudeness against our God any more. People say the most horrible things about God and Jesus and blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and Christians look the other way. Where is the outrage? Why are we not offended on behalf of our Holy God at some of the things that happen in His name, or are defiance against His name? Here is a story from the Old Testament which made me think of this.

The Philistines were lined up one mountain, and the Israelites were lined up on another. For 40 days Goliath the giant had stomped out and made his challenge to the Israelites. And for 40 days the encamped Israelites did nothing…except for maybe impotently shudder and quake.

He [Goliath] stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. (1 Samuel 17:8-11)

Day after day this went on. Day after day the Israelites stood by, listening.

One day David’s father Jesse ordered his youngest son David to bring some provisions to three of his eldest brothers who were in the fight and encamped with the Israelites. David fulfilled his duty to the commanding officer and delivered the provisions and went to see his brothers. At that time Goliath got up his usual speech. “And David heard him.” (1 Samuel 17:22b). As usual, “All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid.” (1 Samuel 17:24).

But David took umbrage. He said–

“For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
(1 Sam 17:26b)

The men had forgotten who they were fighting for. But David did not forget. He held His God in the highest esteem, and knew that His holiness and His power were supreme. He is the highest treasure, and to have his name defiled is  (or should be) of concern to every believer.

“Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”

The first thing that David did was take offense. He didn’t mount up on a horse. He didn’t suit up in armor. He certainly didn’t ignore the defiance. He turned to his brothers and said, “did you hear what that guy just said about God?!” Then David took action.

We’re all used to the many good sermons and lessons from the passage about how if God is with us who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

But the focus today I want to make is that David was offended at their statements and actions. He heard it, he resolved to find out more, and when he had, he took action. Why don’t we do that?

Now, I don’t know what defiance against God might look like in your sphere, whether it is church, or work or the gym or wherever. Of course I am not suggesting you go out and fling a stone at the defiant one and go chop off his head or hit him with your best shot. But too many Christians are not offended at the things we should be offended at. I can give one example from life today.

I watched a video of Phil Robertson of Duck Commander and Duck Dynasty television fame preach. In that segment Phil said that he was on the phone at Duck Commander headquarters taking an order for a duck call from a guy in Alabama. Phil said that the man was using God’s name in vain, that every other word out of the guy’s mouth was “G-d this and G-d that.” Finally after about the fifth time, Phil couldn’t take it any more and he asked the guy, “Why are you cursing the only One that can rescue you from death?”

David had listened, then researched more by asking his brothers about Goliath, then he made a plan of action. Phil Robertson didn’t leap on the guy on the phone, nor scold him, but reasonably asked a question. This was because it hurt Phil’s spirit to hear the Lord’s name taken in vain so casually and blasphemously. It offended him.

The guy on the other end of the phone from Phil, by the way, hung up. But then the next day he called back and asked Phil to explain what he meant. This led to a personal visit several weeks later and then a conversion and a baptism. Phil got in the battle by confronting the guy, and God took care of the rest. David got in the battle by confronting the guy, and God took care of the rest.

What can you do? Maybe you can prepare some responses in your mind ahead of time, gentle rejoinders that make a person think. Have some verses ready. Phil didn’t know the man on the phone other than he was a voice on the other end of the phone. You don’t have to get all seeker-sensitive and create a relationship for 5 years and then confront the guy over lattes. Confront, gently, but be stand up for God. Be offended!

The battle is the Lord’s. But first we have to get IN the battle. The Israelites were all standing on the sidelines, either watching the defiance and cursing of our Holy God, or simply ignoring the defiance. It was when David took up his part in the battle that something happened.

The more Jesus is a treasure to you, the more you’ll take umbrage when something blasphemous happens. Be ready with a word in reply, kindly, lovingly, but directly. David directly told the giant:

“This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

The battle is the Lord’s. But are you willing to speak up for Him?

Posted in discernment, false, jesus, passion 2013

Part 3: Discerning a Gnostic conference called "Passion 2013," conclusion

Posted on by elizabethprata

I have been blogging a discernment series on what was taught at the Passion 2013 conference held in Atlanta this January. There was a star studded Christian lineup of speakers and singers at the conference. Unfortunately, that did not guarantee that the Word was handled correctly. Much was taught that was heretical. What was not overtly heretical was implicitly denigrating of preaching, the bible, and church as an organization. I had done an examination of the lead singer for Jesus Culture in part 1, and looked at what Louie Giglio said in part 2. Those links are below. All was balanced against what the bible says.

In this part I’ll present a bare bones synopsis of what Judah Smith said, and then conclude lower down.

Judah Smith talked with the kids at Passion 2013. It is all the rage these days to pooh-pooh doctrine. To mock religion. William Young did it in The Shack, writing,

–the dusty old King James Bible
–church attendance is “religious conditioning”
–“Images of family devotions from his childhood came spilling into his mind, not exactly good memories
–“God’s voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellect”

The cumulative effect of these subtle denigrations of what Jesus holds dear have an effect. In this piece, Smith is talking about Genesis 1, “Let us make man in our image.” He denigrated traditional Christianity, too. He said–

“For those of you who are not scholars, you are wondering who’s “Us” and who’s “Our”? God, I know this is awkward, but who are you talking to? I suppose you could create an alter-ego, but really, who are you talking to, God? … For those of you who are so scholarly and have been around church forever, you say, [he makes his voice a sing-song nasal so the mocking quality would become evident] “Clearly that is a a reference to the triune Godhead.” For the rest of us that watch NFL games and have a real life, it’s a bit [garbled].”

There are several messages here just in this short snippet, and none have anything to do with proper biblical understanding or preaching. Smith taught 60,000 kids that–

–If you’ve ‘been around church forever’ you’re not a respected elder. You’re outdated deadwood.
–Proper study is not to be desired or you risk being branded a “scholar”. In my day they were called disciples.
–Studying the bible and going to church means you don’t have a ‘real life’.
–It is cool to mock the brethren

He also said,

–Without community our world will not see God
–Trusting leadership is not easy (reminds me of the secular revolutionary mantra from hippie 1960s ‘don’t trust anyone over 30’)
–Going to a local place where people know you is not easy (he rarely says “church”)
–Jesus is building something. He is not just here just to individually save people.

Parents, is that what you want your child learning? That leaders are hard to trust and church isn’t real life? That is what these people are teaching. Before sending your child off to a conference that calls itself Christian, look into the people who are going to be filling your child’s mind. Those who claim Jesus may not be all that sterling of a role model as you would want.

Overall, I took away that what was taught to the young adults at Passion 2013 was that visions are normal and to be expected. If you’re not having visions and hearing God’s voice speaking to you personally, something is wrong with you. Topically addressing the scripture in a skeleton context while filling the rest of the time with personal anecdotes and description of ecstatic experience is a sermon. What we experience in ecstatic mode is to be preferred to diligent study of the word. In other words, the bible is OK, but visions are better. The world’s social ills can be fixed with zeal and money. Plus, fixing the world’s social ills with zeal and money should be the purpose of my life. A real faith includes volume, excitement, drama, and surfing from one high encounter with God to the next.

You might remember I talked about the time when David Platt’s book Radical came out. Christians all over the place got on the bandwagon and decided that their plain-jane faith was unremarkable and they needed an adrenaline shot of daring and a radical change to prove to God that they’re really a Christian who means it. Let’s contrast the fancy lights and high volume indoctrinaton of charismatic faith preached at Passion 2013 with this-

An Unremarkable Faith
By Tommy Clayton, Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Meet Larry, a thirty-six year old Science teacher. Larry married Cathy 12 years ago. They love each other and enjoy raising their two sons. Larry’s life wouldn’t hold out much interest to the average citizen. His Facebook account doesn’t draw many friends and nobody ever leaves a comment on his blog. In fact, most people would summarize Larry’s life with one word—boring. But not Larry. Teaching osmosis to junior high students, playing Uno with his kids, and working in the yard with Cathy is paradise to him. But the real love of his life is Jesus. Larry’s a Christian. He’s been walking with the Lord for more than 20 years.

Larry’s Christian friends all employ the same word to describe their companion—faithful. He’s faithful to his local church where he’s been teaching Sunday School for nearly a decade. He’s never ignored a legitimate financial need within the body of Christ. He gives sacrificially, but secretly. Larry devotes himself to his wife and family, lovingly shepherding them through every season of life with the Scriptures. He’s faithful to his job and fellow colleagues. He’s managed to share Christ with nearly every junior-high teacher at Oakwood Academy. And although they mock Larry behind his back, all the teachers respect him. It won’t shock you to know Larry pays his taxes and never misses an opportunity to serve his community. Larry’s life commends the gospel. He’s faithful, but he’s unremarkable. Or, is he?

If you’re bored with Larry’s Christianity, it’s probably because you’ve been influenced by a very different idea of the Christian life. Larry’s not radical, or wild at heart—not in the sense of taking careless risks, jeopardizing the stability of his family, or pursuing a life of adventure. You could say Larry is quite content with his station in life, a station given him by God. He aspires to live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. Sound familiar?

There’s a stubborn and influential voice within evangelicalism that seems to despise simple yet unremarkable faithfulness. Pastor Tom Lyon acknowledges that when he writes, “The value of a humble and unassuming life seems to have been eclipsed by this upwardly mobile ‘dare to be a Daniel’ brand of Christianity which elevates ambition above maturity and has seated the stable but unremarkable believer in coach class. Something is wrong here.”[1]

Lyon went on to describe what he called the unremarkable Christian: “His aspirations, his thirst for notoriety, his estimate of greatness have all been changed. His horizon has come closer to home. He finds in the Bible no call to be outstanding. He is not without ambition, but his dreams have nothing to do with rising above his fellows. Unless pressed, he prefers anonymity to attention. He is steady. Steadied by grace. And one of the most amazing things about grace is how it works this even disposition.”

That’s not an endorsement for ministerial mediocrity or a call to settle for small, lifeless pursuits. On the contrary, it’s is a plea for excellence—but excellence according to Scripture. A humble, Spirit-filled pursuit of greatness should characterize every Christian’s efforts in ministry, but remember that greatness in God’s kingdom is unappealing to the world, unremarkable. How does the world view your life? John MacArthur writes:

“Christians are to be known for their quiet demeanor, not for making disturbances. Unbelievers should see us as quiet, loyal, diligent, virtuous people…To promote a tranquil and quiet life, believers must pursue godliness and dignity…Godliness can refer to a proper attitude; dignity to proper behavior. Thus believers are to be marked by a commitment to morality; holy motives must result in holy behavior. Both contribute to the tranquility and quietness of our lives.”[2]

Here’s a thought to ponder as you go your way. Had you befriended Larry, how might you react to his faithful, yet unremarkable life? Would you advise him to venture out further, take a radical risk for the kingdom and leave behind the quiet, mundane confinements of his Norman Rockwell life? Or would you commend Larry for how he’s living, giving God glory for such a faithful yet unremarkable Christian? Remember, the handful of so-called radical, risk-taking Christians stand on the backs of men like Larry. They are only able to take their risks because the Larry’s of this world won’t, and Larry wouldn’t have it any other way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Who wants a boring faith like that when you can have a vision and tell it to adoring crowds and dance in the footlights? Who wants to study the word, attend church, and serve when you can stamp out sex trafficking in your lifetime or reach an entire generation to bring fame to Jesus? Which brand of Christianity do you want your child to embrace? The vision casting kundalini-dancing, tromping the world kind of faith that eschews doctrine as dry and church as old hat? Or the faithful, dignified, pure, quiet kind of faith that Jesus brought us- and died for?

Don’t hesitate in your answer, because just as the debt clock swings inexorably upward every second, so does  the count of another youth lost to satan. Every second that goes by where that good kind of faith is not taught- or corrected- is a second where the tentacles of hyper-Charismatic ecstasy and cultural ambition will remain in your child like a poison. And just like the kids in secular world were taught in 1960- don’t trust anyone over 30, the Christian youth of today are being taught, don’t trust any pastor over 30. These youth of today will be the pastors of tomorrow. Uncorrected, this trend will doom our faith to a dwindled few, unless we pray battle prayer, and contend for these kids, bringing them back to a knowledge of what TRUE passion for Christ really is.

““““““““““
Part 1: Jesus Culture and Kim Walker-Smith
Part 2: Louie Giglio

Posted in jesus, satan, tyre

Satan, Ezekiel, the prince of Tyre, and magnets

Posted on by elizabethprata

Our lives are dominated by satan until conversion, and influenced by satan thereafter, but the bible explicitly says very little about him. We meet him in Genesis 3, learn a bit more in Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-18, he appears in the NT to tempt Christ and indwell Judas, and then there’s the big finish in Revelation. Paul and Peter mention a bit more but you get the idea. So what do we know about satan, AKA the devil, the beast, and as originally named, Lucifer?

I read Ezekiel 28 yesterday. An interesting picture came to my mind. In the chapter, the writer pens a prophecy for the Prince of Tyre and a lament for the King of Tyre. Tyre was and still is a city, located in Lebanon according to present day borders. It was a hotbed of commerce but also a place of dirty dealings and unscrupulous merchants. There was great wealth. Wherever there is wealth, greed, commerce and power, satan is at hand to stir the pot.

At God’s behest, Ezekiel condemned all this in his prophecy for the Prince of Tyre in verses 1-10. In verses 3-4, Ezekiel wrote

you are indeed wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you; by your wisdom and your understanding you have made wealth for yourself, and have gathered gold and silver into your treasuries;

The reference to being smarter than Daniel is a sarcastic comment. It is sort of like saying, ‘Nice job, Einstein!’ The inference is that the ruler of Tyre is being scolded for thinking he, himself, had accumulated great wealth by his own intellect and wisdom. He was being warned not to say he is a god.

The tone continues like that until verse 10, with the ruler of Tyre being reprimanded and warned against his sins. The prophecy was that God would send fierce enemies to smite him, if the ruler of Tyre didn’t shape up.

Then halfway through the chapter, the heading changes to “A lament over the King of Tyre.” What? Are these two different rulers of Tyre being warned? It seems so at first but then the language of the verses in 11-19 don’t totally reflect that. In verse 13 read that he was in Eden, and in verse 14 we read that the King of Tyre was an anointed guardian cherub on the holy mountain of God. In verse 15 it was said he was blameless in his ways since he was created (not born). Ezekiel’s language reflects the fact that the warnings have shifted from a prophecy against a human ruler of the earthly city of Tyre, to the celestial influence of the heavenly fallen angel Lucifer, a king with power behind the ruler of Tyre.

Prophecy is a warning as to what will happen. A lament is a grief over what has already occurred. These are obviously two different messages to two different beings.

What struck me was the tie between the two, again as reflected in the language. The prince of Tyre, or as in other translations, ruler, was charged with the same sins as satan was in Isaiah 14. Tyre’s ruler was prideful (v. 2a), thought himself a god (v. 2b), enjoyed occupying the high throne (v. 2c) and above all his prideful, deceitful heart is mentioned four times within six verses.

The ruler is charged “by your great wisdom in your trade you have increased your wealth…” (v. 5)

Satan is charged with the same: “In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned;” (v.18b)

The ruler of Tyre is charged thus: “Because your heart is proud,”

And satan, the king of Tyre is charged with the same: “Your heart was proud because of your beauty;” (v.17).

Both were charged with having corrupted their wisdom (v. 5 and v. 17b).

From this chapter we can gather important information. Earthly rulers can be and are heavily influenced by satan. Some even say that the ruler of Tyre was indwelled by satan. This act is not unprecedented. Satan indwelled Judas and it is interpreted in Revelation 13 that he is prophesied to indwell the coming antichrist, when he again (and finally) pridefully occupies a throne and calls himself God.

The picture that came to my mind when pondering the fall of the ruler of Tyre and the fall of the King of Tyre is … magnets.

If you do not have the Holy Spirit in you by having repented and believed on the name of Jesus Christ, then you are influenced to one degree or another by satan. (2 Corinthians 4:4). Of that verse, Sam Storms wrote,

“Before we ever arrive on the scene with the gospel, Satan is exerting a stupefying influence on the mind of the unbeliever.”

As a kid, did you ever put a magnet on a table, and put your hand underneath the table with another magnet of same poles, and drag the magnet around on the table by seeming magic? It can be said that the two parts of Ezekiel of the tension between the Prince of Tyre and the King of Tyre are two magnets. Satan is wielding a stupefying influence on the ruler of Tyre, and the ruler of Tyre is taking on more and more of satan’s attributes. He cannot free himself from the pull of satan nor escape his magnetism, as satan first draws and and then drags the ruler around.

On the surface of the table, it seems that one magnet is going around of its own free will, here and there. But what is really happening is that underneath the table another, unseen force is influencing the upper magnet’s actions and movements. That is what satan does to the unsaved.


There is no way for the unbeliever to withdraw from the magnet’s pull. Only if the unseen magnet goes away, will the other magnet be free to roll around where it will go.
Once a believer is saved, the poles reverse. Turning that unseen magnet over, the draw toward will become a push away. There is nothing you can do to force the two magnets together, but satan still tries.

Sam Storms again:

Satan is anything but a passive, innocent bystander. Although he may be invisible to the eye and undetected by physical means, you may rest assured that he is present, employing every imaginable device (and some unimaginable) to undermine the integrity of God’s people and to sow seeds of discord and confusion.”

The Holy Spirit is what makes the difference. Oh, satan will still be around, but if you resist Him, and the Spirit helps you do that, He will flee away.

So how do the OT verses in Ezekiel help us today? The prophecy came to pass and the prince of Tyre is gone. Yet there are lessons for us as there are in the entire word of God, whether Old Testament or New.

–Do we think more highly of ourselves than we ought?
–Do we think that we have earned success by our own wisdom?
–Is our heart proud? Remember, that charge was leveled the most frequently against both the earthly ruler and against satan. A proud heart is a dangerous thing to carry.
–Have we made an idol of our achievements, possessions, or perceived power?
–Did we properly acknowledge our Holy God for all we are and all we have?

So that’s my thought for today on what I’ve read recently! Your thoughts and insights are welcome. Let’s praise our Holy God that He delivered this wisdom of the bible to us and that we live in a free place where we can read it, pray over it and discuss it all openly and with proper honor to the worthy One!

Posted in jesus, Obama

Is Obama a Christian?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Are we even allowed to ask that question about people who claim Christianity? Pastor Matt Slick answered a similar question this way – “Is Glenn Beck a Christian?”

“It would not be possible to ascertain if he is really a Christian outside of a direct interview with Glenn Beck where I asked him specific questions about his understanding of Christianity and Mormonism. However, we can look at what Mormonism teaches and compare it to the Bible. … It may be a shock to many people, but just saying you “believe in Jesus” doesn’t make a person Christian. There are many religious groups who have contradictory concepts of who Jesus is. In fact, Jesus warned us that in the last days many false christs and false prophets would arise and deceive many (Matt. 24:24). So, we have to be careful because groups can teach a false Jesus.”

In the same way, we can look at what the bible teaches and see if someone is bearing fruit of a regenerated Christian life, and thus determine how to pray for that person.

The man currently occupying the Oval Office, Barack Obama, claimed once again in his speech to the troops on Christmas Day that he is a Christian. Is he? How can we know for sure? Well we can’t know the heart for sure but the bible tells us to watch for fruits. James talked about dead faith, which is profession with no Holy Spirit behind that profession. Empty. (James 2:17, 20, 26). Paul warned that in the last days people would adopt a form of Godliness but deny its power. (2 Timothy 3:5).

John MacArthur asked the question “By what criteria do we determine true from empty faith?” and he answered it by listing 7 conditions that do not prove genuine faith and listing 9 conditions which do. I recommend the article.

Obama talked about Jesus in his speech, saying, “For my family and millions of Americans, it’s a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, to reflect on His life and learn from His example,” Obama, a self-professed Christian, stated. “Every year, we commit to love one another. To give of ourselves. To be our brother’s keeper. To be our sister’s keeper. But those ideas are not just part of our faith. They’re part of all faiths. And they unite us as Americans.”

There are several statements in that section of his speech to the troops that are false. We are not to learn from Jesus’s example but to submit to His authority as Holy God. There is a difference between intellectual submission to good ideas espoused as philosophy, and obedient submission to a Holy God because He is worthy.

Every year at Christmas we commit to honor Him who came to earth to live a sinless life so He could put away our sin. Yes, we commit to each other, as Christians, but first and foremost we commit to Jesus as Savior. the day is a recognition of the most dramatic moment in the universe, equalled only by the resurrection 33 years later.

Third, the notion that the ideas of brotherly love and commitment to that love are part of all faiths is also false. Buddhism denies love by aiming for release from attachment, including love. (Four Noble Truths). Islam denies love by saying it is all right to lie as long as it advances Islam. (Qur’an 16:106). Muslims are allowed (expected) to kill unbelievers (Quran (2:191-193, 2:216) and anyone who does not join in the killing is called a hypocrite and warned that Allah’s wrath is upon them. Mormonism denies love by promoting polygamy. Hinduism emphasizes love as pleasure as one of the four aims of life.

Obama is incorrect when he says that all faiths commit to love one another and be each other’s keeper. This is an example of using biblical terminology as a form of godliness but denying its power. That statement uttered by Cain after murdering his brother and disobediently flung at God is ripped apart from its proper context in Genesis 4:9, and thus it is stripped of meaning and devoid of Spirit. They are godly words with no power.

The bottom line is that all other faiths deny love because they deny God, who IS love. (1 John 4:8). The concept of Godly love does not unite us as Americans. It unites us as only as Christians, because brotherly love through Christ is non-existent in all other faiths.

Additionally, in the past, Obama has said that the Muslim Koran is ‘holy’. No Christian names a book of satanic lies ‘holy’. Only the bible is holy because it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Obama has mocked the bible, satirically denying the authority of several scriptures in the Old Testament and casting doubt on the truth of the word. What a person thinks of the bible is an outward indicator of what he thinks of God.

Obama has said that the prettiest sound on earth is the call to Arabic prayer. In a NY Times interview in 2007, “Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

He recited the prayer in that same interview. The prayer states that “Allah is most great, there I bear witness that is none worthy of being worshiped except Allah.”

The prayer itself may sound pretty, but the God-hatred behind it in its words is blasphemous in the extreme. No Christian can call that pretty nor would even recite it unless to state immediately afterwards that it is a lie from the pit of hell and that there in truth is none worthy to worship except Jesus.

For example, the Ave Maria is a beautiful aria especially when it’s sung by Luciano Pavarotti. But I can’t listen to it any more because it is a Catholic prayer which says, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and in the hour of our death. Amen.”

Mary is not a prayer intercessor in heaven for us. Only Jesus is. (1 Timothy 2:5). If I was to sing it I’d be blaspheming the true Intercessor. The words are what is important. How can one call a particular song or prayer pretty, even though it sounds good, when the words are saying the worst things against God?

He uses scripture when it suits him (Sermon on the Mount) but knocks it when it suits him. (Leviticus)

He has never mentioned his conversion testimony. (Psalm 18:2; Matthew 5:16; 1 Peter 3:15). He doesn’t speak of sin, submission to a resurrected Jesus, or Jesus as the only way. When presented with an opportunity to let the name of Jesus shine behind him on a pediment from which he was speaking at Georgetown University, Obama instead asked for it to be covered over before he would agree to speak there. Matthew 10:33 says that ‘whoever denies Me before people I will deny in heaven.’

Obama believes in and encourages abortion and homosexual marriage. Babies in the womb are people whom God formed and we are commanded not to kill (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-16, Exodus 21:22-25) and marriage defined by God is a sacred institution designed by God in order to bring Him glory. Whenever marriage is mentioned it is always between a man and a woman. (Genesis 2:24, 1 Corinthians 7:2-16, Ephesians 5:23-33)

He does not attend church, saying it would be a distraction to others. Yet both Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter worshiped regularly when they were President. While a person’s church attendance or involvement does not determine their entrance into heaven, the Bible does emphasize the importance of Christian fellowship in a local church. (Hebrews 10:25).

Does a Christian cover the name of Jesus, call the Koran holy, recite an Allah prayer without accompanying refutation of it as untruth, twist scripture, support abortion and homosexual marriage, mock the holy bible, and equalize all religions?

Is Obama a Muslim? I don’t think he is that either. But that‘s a post for another day.

Ultimately we can use the resources above as guideposts for our own faith. I read Dr. MacArthur’s list with myself in mind before I wrote this essay about Obama. We will never know another person’s heart nor what the future may bring for them (conversion?! one can hope). The main point here is that just because a person calls himself a Christian, just because they cite Jesus, does not mean that they are a Christian.

We will all have to account to Jesus for every careless word, (Matthew 12:36-37) including any words we spoke that used Jesus as a vehicle for personal, political, or professional glory. So here is a synopsis of the list so you can check your own self, and if you go to the link there are several other resources there too. Check yourself to see if you are in a saving faith of belief in a resurrected Jesus. As for the others whom you suspect are professing an empty, dead faith, pray for them.

Dr. MacArthur’s ‘Seven conditions that do not prove or disprove genuine saving faith.’ I recommend you read the essay for the explanation for each and supporting scriptures.

1. Visible Morality
2. Intellectual Knowledge
3. Religious Involvement
4. Active Ministry
5. Conviction of Sin
6. The Feeling of Assurance
7. A Time of Decision

Nine conditions that prove genuine saving faith. Again, please refer to the original essay for explanation of each and supporting scriptures.

1. Love for God
2. Repentance from Sin
3. Genuine Humility
4. Devotion to God’s Glory
5. Continual Prayer
6. Selfless Love
7. Separation from the World
8. Spiritual Growth
9. Obedience

Posted in egypt, elections, israel, jesus, jordan, person of the year

News: Obama Time’s Person of Year; Israel/Jordan/Egypt elections; Syria’s Chemical Weapons

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is some news for this bright Christmas Eve Eve…

Did you know that lawmakers in Germany have been working hard to ban the ancient Jewish practice of circumcision? The measure failed last week. There are lots of ways to oppress Jews and Christians. One way is excessive bureaucratic interference and laws.

Germans overwhelmingly oppose making circumcision illegal
Germany’s parliament approved a bill to keep male circumcision legal, after a court ruling earlier this year put the practice into question. Discussions focussed on child welfare versus religious freedom. This follows months of debate. In May 2012, a Cologne court ruled that the circumcision of a young boy on religious grounds amounted to grievous bodily harm, and was therefore illegal. The decision prompted many Jews and Muslims to question their acceptance and sense of feeling spiritually at home in Germany. Months of debate on the cultural and religious tradition of infant male circumcision in Germany followed. Nowhere else in the entire world has this debate been held “with such acrimony, frostiness and at times brutal intolerance,” Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said at the time.”

Satan has gone after God’s chosen people since the very beginning. Genesis records him attacking Eve and Adam in the garden, (Genesis 3), and Revelation records that he will go after them in the end. (Revelation 12:17). The day that he is thrown into the Lake of Fire will be the day when all of God’s children will finally be safe. (Revelation 20:10).

So what is going on with those chemical weapons in Syria? “Israel frets chemicals weapons could fall into wrong hands“:

“Syria’s chemical weapons are still secure despite the fact that President Bashar al-Assad has lost control of parts of the country, a senior Israeli defence official said today. … “Suppose he (Assad) does leave, there could be chaos … in the Middle East you never know who will come instead…”

That is true. Ask Egypt if they feel they made a good swap of Mubarak for Muslim Brotherhood…

Egypt constitutional vote: ‘Things are definitely worse than under the old regime’:
“…second half of the referendum on the draft constitution, which was drawn up by an Islamist-dominated panel from which Christians and liberals had withdrawn in protest. Among the many charges levelled against the constitution by both human rights groups, secular and liberal activists, and the Coptic Christian minority, is that its defence of basic freedoms is heavily curtailed when it comes to religion and politics. Specifically, it will forbid any law that would permit anything deemed insulting either of people or of religion, the Prophet Mohammed or the other figures considered by Islam to be God’s messengers. Such a clause could clearly have a chilling effect on free thinking and speech.”

That referendum on the new Egyptian (Muslim Brotherhood) Constitution was voted on this week and it passed, Reuters reports:

“The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled President Mohamed Mursi to power in a June election, said an unofficial tally showed 64 percent of voters backed the charter after two rounds of voting that ended with a final ballot on Saturday.”

Read Isaiah 19 for a look ahead for what is going to happen to Egypt. It is pretty dark for a while but then thanks to God’s grace Egypt is restored. The people come to saving knowledge of the Lord and they are blessed. Knowing the end makes reading about what is happening to Egypt now a bit easier. A bit.

Elections in the Middle East:

I just reported on Egypt’s big voting event, the Constitution. Jordan has an election coming up on January 23 to vote in a new Parliament. King Abdullah is still the King, of course. Prior to the elections a new electoral law was passed, allowing voters to cast two ballots; one for a candidate in their constituency and one for party lists elected by proportional representation at the national level. In addition, The number of seats reserved for candidates of political parties was raised from 17 to 27 out of the 140 seats in the House of Representatives.” (Wiki)

Israel is holding elections too. They will be held on January 22 for representatives to their Parliament, called the Knesset. “Next month Israel will see another parliamentary election – an event that takes place almost every two years, which is considered by some Israelis as far too often. The country has swapped more than thirty governments in 64 years. 20 Israeli interior ministers, 14 foreign ministers and 15 justice ministers have been and gone in the last twenty years.”

Obama was selected (again) by Time Magazine as Person of the Year.

Another cover is making the rounds that I much prefer:

And there was a bit of news for you as we go forward on this Christmas Eve Eve. Here is a Good Thought brought to you from the Creator of the Universe, the Savior of the World and the Comforter of the People:

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3if indeed by putting it ona we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5)

Posted in jesus, lynch

Israeli-linked Facebook page says Palestinians would lynch Jesus if He lived in Bethlehem today

Posted on by elizabethprata

A news item in the UK Daily Mail caught my attention

“The Israeli embassy in Dublin has apologised for a post on its Facebook page which said if Mary and Jesus were alive in Bethlehem today Palestinians would probably lynch them. The post, which was made on the Israel in Ireland Facebook page, showed a picture of Mary and Jesus. It was accompanied by the comment: ‘A thought for Christmas… If Jesus and mother Mary were alive today, they would, as Jews without security, probably end up being lynched in Bethlehem by hostile Palestinians.”

The Daily Mail grabbed a screen shot before the post was removed:

RT.com (Russia Today) reported the story too:

“Israel’s diplomatic corps finds itself in hot water after posting an inflammatory message on an official Facebook page. Although the message has now been deleted, this is not the first time Israel has used social media to post controversial views. The message appeared on the IsraelinIreland Facebook page – which is linked to on the official embassy site – on Monday morning. … The message sparked immediate heated debate, but was taken down within hours.

“An image of Jesus and Mary with a derogatory comment about Palestinians was posted without the consent of the administrator of the Facebook page. We have removed the post in question immediately. Apologies to anyone who may have been offended,” said an official statement from the Israeli embassy in Dublin”

“Since then, the IsraelinIreland page has been shut down altogether, and the link on the official website has been removed. This was not the first time the account, which is updated by unnamed embassy staff, broadcast strong opinions.”

Is a ‘derogatory comment’ inflammatory if it is true?

Jesus has always brought controversy. When He was born, Herod sought to kill Him. (Matthew 2:16). The Pharisees & Sadducees sought to kill Him. (Mark 3:6). His own Nazarene townspeople sought to kill Him. (Luke 4:29). Eventually, the government and the religious establishment did kill Him. (Matthew 27:50).

As Charles Spurgeon preached, “And many times Satan attempted to put the personal existence of Christ in danger, so that he might get Christ to die. Poor fool as he was, he did not know that when Christ died he would bruise the devil’s head.”

Jesus brings a sword, and division- even in families. (Matthew 10:34-35). He always has.

Voice of the Martyrs reports, “In more than 40 nations around the world today Christians are being persecuted for their faith. In some of these nations it is illegal to own a Bible, to share your faith Christ, change your faith or teach your children about Jesus.”

Some of those nations which persecute Christians are Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza, and Egypt- all abutting nations to Israel. If the Arabs and Muslims IN the Holy Lands kill Christians for preaching Christ, then what makes anyone think they wouldn’t kill Christ if they had a chance? After all, it was only one month ago that we read that Palestinians were protesting in Bethlehem in an Anti-Israel fervor

“Anti-Israel protests erupted in the West Bank Tuesday as Palestinians took to the streets and clashed with IDF troops. The worst clashes took place in Bethlehem and Hebron, where IDF soldiers used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse stone-throwers. Scores of Palestinians hurled stones and empty bottles at soldiers near Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem.” [bold mine]

Political correctness is reaching stupid levels. We should pray harder for the Christians who live in the dangerous places and who boldly proclaim their Savior amidst a harsh reality and potential repercussions.

We praise Him that He came to die and rise again so that we may live eternally, even if we die bodily.

Posted in angels, bible, government, jesus, powers

Government will be upon His shoulders: The heavenly government to come

Posted on by elizabethprata

Though the United States presidential election happened only 6 weeks ago, it feels like a lifetime ago.

However, undiminished 6 weeks later is my shock that Obama won again, and with that, the terrible feeling that the US is under judgment.

I’ve been a political animal all my life. My father was politically involved in supporting candidates, and later as a candidate himself. I remember as a four or five year old, laying in dusty grange halls and admiring the colorful banners strung up. Later as a newspaper reporter I covered government, government officials, and took my duty seriously that we live in the greatest nation in the world and I needed to do my part in being an informed participant in elections and to be a journalistic watchdog of those who win them.

As a lover of history I feel deeply the sacrifices the Pilgrims made to dare cross an ocean in a tiny boat and start a new nation, and of the Revolutionaries who dared to poke a stick in the eye of the most powerful nation in the world, Britain, to separate and go our own way.

What American isn’t moved by the words in the Declaration of Independence, and who wouldn’t cherish the US Constitution? It hurts to see the government destroyed by man’s greed, sin, and God’s judgment due to the disobedience and opportunity we have squandered.

So government is always on my mind, and thus, when I read the famous ‘Christmas’ verse in Isaiah 9, I treasure these words:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

“Government shall be on His shoulders”

We usually focus on the child, or the titles for the child such as Counselor etc. But this blog entry is about government, on earth and in heaven; the present institution and the coming glorious eternity.

The Isaiah verse continues with the government theme:

“Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:7)

The Hebrew word for government in the verse is misrah, meaning ‘rule, dominion’.

God is orderly. His orderliness extends to every atom in the universe, including the government of His temple and the hierarchy of His angelic host. Let’s look at the order of the angelic host for a minute.

In Nehemiah 9:6 we read of the host:

“Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.”

The word host here means tsaba: defined as army, war, warfare. It evokes the orderly organization of armies into cohorts, legions, companies, divisions, etc. as we know them on earth. Colossians 1:16 continues the idea that the angels are divided into divisions of hierarchical structures:

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him”.

No one is quite sure what those powers and principalities are or what they involve (except trying to thwart God’s plans as seen in the Daniel 10 verse below) because though the bible mentions the powers, principalities and thrones and dominions, they are not defined for us. Therefore there is much debate.

However we do know that the bible says that there was an angelic-demonic Prince of Persia who caused a delay in Gabriel’s dispatch to Daniel, and Michael had to come help break that resistance. (Daniel 10:13). Perhaps this is an indication of the fact that if angels are called “princes” in the heavenly realms, they also have “principalities.”

However since they are referred to as the host which means an army, one can perhaps safely say that they are a hierarchy. It’s just that no one is sure of the order from top to bottom.

Additionally, the bible mentions classes of angels such as seraphim and cherubim and archangels.

Isaiah 6:2 first mentions Seraphim. The word “seraphim” (singular is saraph) is probably a translation of ‘fiery ones’ and seems to stem from the fiery imagery in the Presence of God (cf. Ezekiel 1:27; Ezekiel 28:14).

The Cherubim seem to guard important things, like the Ark of the Covenant, and the Tree of Life. (Genesis 3:24; Exodus 25:20; Ezekiel 10:16). They may have four faces or two faces and wings and hands. Amazing creatures!

Michael is mentioned as an archangel (Jude 1:9) and the word archangel is translated chief angel.

Gabriel is an archangel too, identified so in translation of his name into the Hebrew, “man of El, archangel,” Strong’s 1403. Daniel 8:16; Daniel 9:21).

The verse 2 Peter 2:10 uses the word authority [some translations it is government] and the Greek translation refers to a hierarchy:

“But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.” KJV (lordship: divine or angelic lordship, domination, dignity, usually with reference to a celestial hierarchy.)

The word authority also indicates in the Greek, “dominion; a power exerting itself in a particular jurisdiction (“ruling”).

See how orderly everything is??

Though this survey of the angelic hierarchies and the dominions God has set up has been brief,  I wanted to offer the concepts of order in established government as a comfort. God is orderly. Even though there is rebellion in heaven and rebellion on earth, what He has set up will be restored. Even though angels resist and try to thwart, and man is sinful and rejects, everything is still subject to His rule and He controls it.

If you love government at its best, all functioning perfectly for the common good, just wait until the government rests on Jesus’s shoulders! What perfection! What Good will come of it! What glory will shine upon Hm and through Him!

because He was born and lived and died and was resurrected, on His Day, He will restore all order and all the government will be on His shoulder. The government will function perfectly and in total harmony. Plus, no more elections and if there are no more elections there will be no more campaigns. Phew! His restoration of the government upon His shoulders is yet another blessing the baby Jesus as God-man gives us hope to look forward to!

Read this conclusion to Ephesians 1:15-23. I added the emphasis–

Thanksgiving and Prayer

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,  and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.