Category: jesus

Posted in church, distinguishing of spirits, jesus, spiritual gifts

What is the gift of distinguishing of spirits?

Posted on by elizabethprata

More on spiritual gifts: I asked the question in prior blog entries on whether the spiritual gifts that were given as a sign are ceased now. (tongues, interpretation of tongues, miracles, healing). I came to the conclusion that scripture seems to say they are concluded.

There are many other permanent, edifying spiritual gifts that remain to this day.  The spiritual gifts are endowments given by the Holy Spirit.  As Theology professor Wayne Grudem says, “these are the supernatural graces which individual Christians need to fulfill the mission of the church.” I won’t take time to do a series on all of them, better scholars than me have weighed in on explaining them. However today I do want to look at one particular gift, though: distinguishing of spirits.

Here is the verse from 1 Corinthians 12:10 in several different translations:

“to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.” (ESV)

“To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:” (KJV)

“He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.” (NLT)

The word for distinguishing in Greek is diakrisis, and it means an act of judgment. Not the kind of judgment in court, but “properly, a thorough judgment, i.e. a discernment (conclusion) which distinguishes “look-alikes,” i.e. things that appear to be the same” goes the definition from Strong’s. (source)

Pastor Charles Spurgeon once said that “discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right.”

In the bible one example of the gift of distinguishing of spirits was when Peter was able to tell instantly when both Ananias and Sapphira were lying to him and thus to the Holy Spirit.

“But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” 5When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. (Acts 5:1-5)

How did Peter know? Ananias had made a claim, and there doesn’t seem to have been enough time to pass for Peter to have heard any different from other sources…except from the Holy Spirit. And the exact same thing happened when Ananias’s wife Sapphira came in three hours later and laid some money down. She also claimed it was the full amount. Peter pronounced her death and immediately she fell down and breathed her last. (Acts 5:7-10).

Paul had the same thing happen, and the gift of discerning of spirits manifested itself in a way that showed him though the girl was saying something truthful, was at root an evil from a demon.

“As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. (Acts 16:16-18)

The Holy Spirit had given Paul and Peter the ability to discern if what the person was saying was a lie or the truth, or was a half-truth, or was truth but was from an evil spirit.

We all have a certain amount of discernment. We should practice it, pray for it, and be diligent about it. As we grow in our faith, we employ the discernment knowledge we have gained as we strive with the Spirit. But there are other people who have been given a gift of discerning the spirits. These people seem to be able to tell earlier that something is false. They are ahead of the curve so to speak.

The men at GotQuestions tell us:

“There are certain individuals, however, who have the God-given ability to distinguish between the truth of the Scriptures and erroneous and deceptive doctrines propagated by demons. Although we are all exhorted to be spiritually discerning (Acts 17:11; 1 John 4:1), some in the body of Christ have been given the unique ability to “spot” the forgeries in doctrine that have plagued the church since the first century. But this does not involve a mystical, extra-biblical revelation or a voice from God. Rather, the spiritually discerning among us are so familiar with the Word of God that they instantly recognize what is contrary to it. They do not receive special messages from God; they use the Word of God to “test the spirits” to see which line up with God and which are in opposition to Him. The spiritually discerning are those who “rightly divide” (2 Timothy 2:15) the Word of God in a thoughtful and diligent manner.”

John MacArthur on 1 Cor 12:10, on how the discerning spirits verse manifests itself today says,

“This kind of gifted Christian can intuitively identify truth from error, hypocrisy from genuineness, and false prophets are everywhere today and I believe there are some people who are gifted by God to unmask false prophets. I think some of them write books. I think some of the people who have done good work in the cults and in the occult may be exercising the gift of discernment, the capacity to see through something to the core of its hypocrisy.”

The gift of discernment of spirits is a gift the Spirit has given to me. So, how does a person with this gift use it? How is the church edified by proper use of a gift of discerning the spirits?

MacArthur again:

“The gift can be exercised in many ways. Let me just share what possibly could be the use of it today. It could be used to reveal demonism in any form, any form. It could be used to reveal false prophets and spiritual phony’s. This person can spot a spiritual phony without missing, usually. Sometimes someone say to me, “You better not put that person in such a such position. You’d better not have that person come to your church and do, because something’s not right, protecting the church. I think the gift can even be used to see the intrusion of carnal elements into worship. The gift can discern one in whom the Holy Spirit is genuinely working. The same person will often say to me, “You know there’s a person really energized by the Spirit of God. I can see it.” They are the watchmen of the church.

Tim Challies wrote a book on discernment. He said, “This is not merely a gift, but a responsibility.”

You shouldn’t accumulate knowledge just for the sake of knowledge. Once you know something is true or false, you have a responsibility to do something about it. You have a responsibility to praise the Savior if you find a true teaching, but if you find a false teaching you have to say something about it, as well.

I tell my fellows at church that I am a carbon monoxide alarm. Carbon monoxide gas is poisonous and odorless. It kills, but people only detect its presence when they start to feel sleepy and even then it may be too late. False doctrine is like that, odorless, undetectable except for some symptoms that appear in people who are under its influence. If you detect a false teaching, or an evil spirit at work or a carnality creeping in, or whatever it may be as MacArthur outlined, DO something. What I do is speak to my pastor or the teacher of the class. I make a report. I tell the men, right away. I let them know what I found, how I found it, where I found it, and the methods I used to find it. This is so they can check for themselves. I also offer the scriptural foundation that in my opinion shows the teaching or carnal thing is false so they can compare it to the Word. If they deem it false, my prayer next becomes that they do something about it and therefore it will not be tolerated.

Remember the condemnation of the church at Thyatira. The people were tolerating a false prophetess. Jesus was unhappy about that. (Revelation 2:20). If you discern something is off somewhere, you have a responsibility to speak up about it.

It isn’t an easy ministry. I don’t go looking for falsity. The blogs that have a badge on their top menu bar “member of heresy hunters” or some such…I disagree with that. I don’t spend my time hunting evil. I spend my time hunting good. There is too much evil to keep up with and it always finds me anyway. Instead, I try to stay on the center line of the narrow road of His goodness by listening to sermons, praising Jesus, learning the word, exhorting about Him everywhere I go.

Sometimes in other places or in other churches when I did make a report on this or that, my report was rejected summarily without prayer or consultation to the scriptures. Sometimes I was identified as a bad influence rather than the false doctrine being bad. Shooting the messenger does happen. Poor Jeremiah, thrown into a nearly bottomless cistern… That is why having the gift of discernment of spirits is a responsibility and not an intellectual game and not a personal playground. It comes with consequences, sometimes.

Challies said,

“Satan and his spirits can be discerned in appearance. Satan invades the Christian community with teachers and leaders who counterfeit the truth. These people will always introduce teaching that is foreign to Scripture. … Though her [the slave girl’s] words were true, the spirit behind them was false and sought to lure people with a little bit of truth so that the opportunity could be used to heap reproach upon the gospel.”

And there is the nut of it. Whether you don’t have the specific gift but are maturing in your faith and gaining discernment, or you do have the spiritual gift of distinguishing spirits, not bringing reproach on the Gospel is the goal. Jesus is to be uplifted, always. It is HIS Gospel, it is HIS church, it is HIS doctrine. So even though the responsibility is heavy, the joy is wonderful when the body works together to maintain a level of purity in a local church. It is joy when we see the melding of the separate gifts result in something pleasing to the One who delivered us from the evil that we are now reporting and protecting the fellow sheep from.

In some cases, the sheep never even knew that a creeping poison almost touched them. They are happily ministering and functioning in their spiritual gifts unknowingly protected from yet another foray by satan. Praise the Lord for mature churches where all gifts of the body work together to edify His congregation and exalt Jesus, the ultimate goal of any church!

Posted in bible, jesus, king of kings and lord of lords, new name, prophecy

What’s in a name? We get a new name, and Jesus does too

Posted on by elizabethprata

Most of us love to look up the background to our names. Personally I used to enjoy looking up the meaning of my name, Elizabeth, though I was always bemused about it. The name means “oath of God.” I was not saved so I thought that the name was a big miss, because I was far from God. Until I turned 43, that is, and then I was saved.

In the bible when babies were named it was a big deal. The Hebrew parents tried to give a name they thought would capture the essence of the baby’s character or capture what they hoped their baby would become. The bible verse usually took some time to let us know what that name meant.

Last names are fun to look up too. Surnames place us, identify us with a tribe, or sometimes, a profession. In modern times we’ve forgotten that the last name Smith used to be short for blacksmith, or Cooper mean maker of barrels. In the bible there was Alexander the Coppersmith, (2 Timothy 4:14), and Simon the Tanner, (Acts 9:43, Acts 10:32).

Alternately some in the bible times were known by their father’s name, such as James the son of Zebedee (Matthew 4:21) or Levi son of Alphaeus, who was also known by his profession, hated as it was: Levi the Tax Collector. When the assembled at the synagogue in Jesus’s hometown listened to Jesus they were astonished, and said “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?” (Mark 6:3). This was offensive, a way of saying ‘isn’t he the bastard?’ Because they did not say ‘Isn’t this the son of Joseph?’ Instead they said the son of Mary, naming the mother. This was not done. You were always the son of the father. This is the place where Jesus said a prophet is without honor in his own hometown.

Mary Magdalene was known as the Mary of the town of Magdalene and of course our own Jesus was known as Jesus of Nazareth.

There were nicknames in the bible, also. James and John were nicknamed Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder. We would translate that as “hot heads.” Simon was called Peter for rock.

Adam was tasked with naming all the animals (Genesis 1:19) and Adam also named Eve (Genesis 2:20).

Hannah humbly and fervently asked of God that he would grant her a son. He did, and she named him Samuel, which means ‘asked of God’. “She called his name Samuel, “since she had asked the Lord for him” (1 Samuel 1:20).

In Genesis 35:18 we have a case of a name change done by the father- “And it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-oni: Son of my sorrow: but his father Jacob called him Benjamin, “Son of my right hand.”

Methuselah meant ‘he has sent his death’. And you thought YOUR name was depressing! Literally it meant that God would not send death until Methuselah died. Methuselah was the longest living person in history, 969 years. God’s patience is great! When Methuselah died, the flood came within the year. (Exodus 5:21-32).

Sometimes when someone is given a new name in the bible, it means that they have a new identity. It can work to the negative or to the positive. For example, when Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar, he captured many of the youth to bring back to Babylon with him, including “Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.” (Daniel 1:6). One way to demoralize and assimilate prisoners was to give them a new name. This was in effect giving them a new identity, and cutting them off in every way from their old identity.

As for Daniel and the three friends…. “And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.” Each Hebrew name had been carefully chosen by the parents, and to try and separate them from that identity, they were given names of false gods.

Jamison-Fausset-Brown Dictionary:

“He gave names–designed to mark their new relation, that so they might forget their former religion and country ( Genesis 41:45 ). But as in Joseph’s case (whom Pharaoh called Zaphnath-paaneah), so it was in Daniel’s. His name means God my Judge, the theme of his prophecies being God’s judgment on the heathen world powers, was given the name indicative of his relation to a heathen court (“Belteshazzar,” that is, “Bel’s prince”). To Hananiah–that is, “whom Jehovah hath favored.” was given the name Shadrach–from Rak, in Babylonian, “the King,” that is, “the Sun”; the same root as in Abrech, inspired or illumined by the Sun-god.”

Mishael–that is, “who is what God is?” Who is comparable to God? was given Meshach–The Babylonians retained the first syllable of Mishael, the Hebrew name; but for El, that is, GOD, substituted Shak, the Babylonian goddess, called Sheshach (Jeremiah 25:26, 51:41), answering to the Earth, or else Venus, the goddess of love and mirth; it was during her feast that Cyrus took Babylon.

Azariah–that is, “whom Jehovah helps” was given the name Abed-nego–that is, “servant of the shining fire.”

Thus, instead of to Jehovah, these His servants were dedicated by the heathen to their four leading gods; Bel, the Chief-god, the Sun-god, Earth-god, and Fire-god. The names thus at the outset are significant of the seeming triumph, but sure downfall, of the heathen powers before Jehovah and His people. (source)

Esther is the Persian name (star) of the Hebrew youth named Hadassah (means myrtle), taken to live at Xerxes’s court. (Esther 2:7)

Unlike Joseph, Daniel, and the three friends who were given new pagan names by evil kings to help them forget their identity as one of God’s chosen ones and to force a new identity in the pagan courts, sometimes God Himself gives a new name to mark the beginning of a new identity.

There are several examples of examples of people in the Bible who were given new names by God:
Abram to Abraham (Gen 17:5)
Sarai to Sarah (Gen 17:15)
Jacob to Israel (Gen 32:23)
Oshea (or Hoshea) to Joshua (Num 13:16)
Simon to Peter (Mt 16:17-18)
Saul to Paul (Acts 13:9)

There are several verses in the Bible that speak of us receiving a new name in Heaven: Rev 2:17, Isa 62:2, Rev 3:12.

Revelation 2:17- “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’”

Isaiah 62:2- The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.”

Revelation 3:12- “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”

When we enter the kingdom above, three names are again written upon us; the name of God, the name of the heavenly city, and Christ’s heavenly name.

But get this–

JESUS gets a new name too!?!? Is it the name written on His thigh, “King of kings, and Lord of lords,” (Revelation 19:16)? Is it a completely new name? “His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.” (Revelation 19:12). What is this new name? We don’t know. MacArthur explains the verse:

“Christ’s own new name. What does that mean? Well the name of God or the name of Christ means all that He is. We know Christ, we know Christ but we only know what we have read, we haven’t seen Him. The moment we see Him His persona will take on utterly new dimensions. And whatever we may have called Him and understood by the name will pale in the reality of what we see. And there will be a new name to describe Him. And He’ll give us that new name and we’ll be privileged to call Him by it.”

Robin Schumacher wrote, “At present and incommunicable and known only to God, to be hereafter revealed and made the believer’s own union with God in Christ. Christ’s name written on Him denotes he shall be wholly Christ’s.” (source)

O, the joys keep coming! We will receive a new name from Christ and He will privilege us to hear His new name we may call Him by! It gets better and better, doesn’t it? The best is yet to come. We have that glorious moment to look forward to, and whatever His new name will be, I know that it is only by His blood that my sinful lips may utter it. He cleanses and purifies, and though I long for that Day, for now I am all joy to call Him JESUS.

Posted in beth moore, christine caine, false teaching, feminism, jesus, priscilla shirer

How the Christian secret feminists are reforming the definition of biblical womanhood. Part 3

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3

I’ve been looking at Christian secret feminism. I call it secret feminism because as opposed to the open Christian feminists, these women live as feminists but cloak their lifestyle and teaching in Christianese talk. Look at part 1 for how they do that, and look at part 2 for an examination of what the bible calls women to be like.

In this final part I want to look at Revelation 2 again, the church at Thyatira. This part will look at the final outcome of what happens to churches that tolerate this stuff.

In April of this year I proposed that the false prophetess Jezebel-spirit spoken against by Jesus in who was being tolerated in the church at Thyatira was a Beth Moore type. I am going to deepen that study a bit.

In the previous two parts I’ve spoken of the lifestyle that Beth Moore and other female celebrity teachers  lives is more one of feminism than wifely biblical womanhood. I parsed their speech and compared that to their life and the difference is amazing in its gap. One does not match up to the other. I’ve examined many times how Moore in particular has brought false teachings into the church, particularly the American church, much to the detriment of her students. I said that one way to discern if a person is true or not is to match what they say with what they do and if there is a discrepancy over time, it is in fact a pattern of falsity. Beth Moore exemplifies this both in her lifestyle and her teaching.

Theologian Robin Schumacher wrote about the church at Thyatira. First, let’s see what Jesus has to say to this church, which was an actual church in the first century, but is also representative of the church of today.

“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.”

“‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (Revelation 2:18-29)

Oh, Lord Jesus praise Your name!!

Schumacher writes of the verse referring to Jezebel, “Christ condemns what was evidently rampant immorality in the church that was spearheaded by a prominent female figure that Jesus likens to the Old Testament character of Jezebel. The specific deeds called out are spiritual adultery and the worship of idols signified by the eating of things sacrificed to them.”

He notes that the Greek term tolerate means to ‘let go’ and ‘allow.’ “The main complaint Jesus had against the church was that they were allowing a false teacher to parade her teaching and her practices in their midst, with the end result that some were being led astray. We need to remember that the church is not to be a home for false teaching.”

John MacArthur explains what happens when a church tolerates false teaching, “Sin and false doctrine always appear together. Whenever false doctrine enters into a church, sin follows. For example, the church at Corinth was subject to false teachers. As a result, sin became widespread throughout the church. The church at Thyatira represents the church characterized by sin and false doctrine. Where there is a tolerance for false doctrine, theological liberalism begins to creep in and the gospel is watered down. That is how Satan brings about sin.”

It is exactly happening like that today.

Let’s look at the verse referring to this false teacher as prophetess. Schumacher again:

“The word ‘prophetess’ is only used in the New Testament here and once in Luke 2:36 to speak of Anna- it means one who interprets oracles. The easiest way to justify false teaching is to make the claim that you are a prophet from God and that the things you advocate and teach come directly from Him.”

Wow. I want you to think for a minute if there is any woman in today’s Christian world who is

–teaching
–proclaiming false things in that teaching
–wielding major influence across the church
–leading many astray
–claiming direct revelation from God
–and was told to teach it to the people
–having been around long enough to birth spiritual daughters

Going on, the Lord said He gave her time to repent. She did not want to, the verse says, but in the meantime she birthed spiritual daughters.

The Lord is gracious and kind. He gave time to repent, and in so doing he also gave the church time to put a stop to the false teaching. However as much as the Jezebel teacher didn’t want to repent, the church didn’t put a stop to it.

When we step outside our roles God assigned us chaos ensues. Men are giving up on their biblically mandated charge to the shepherds and teachers and handing over the roles to women, who are also taking up those roles at home. Women, emboldened by their secular feminist sisters, are yielding to satan’s temptation to go after leadership roles.

Brethren, God is the authority. He knows best. If He ordained things they way they are it is for our good. We must believe that. We must. It is what faith is, believing and living out a life submitted to His precepts.

Now, I don’t think all the woman I’ve mentioned throughout his series are terrible people. Some may even be saved, and love the Lord. They may not be aware of the fact that they are part of a generation that has compromised on their biblical role, having only had spiritual Jezebels to look up to. But the word of God is the ultimate authority and His lenses are always clear.

I’ve seen submitted woman living a life of care and nurturing love to their family and it is a beautiful thing. Beautiful. I’ve seen modesty displayed and humility exhibited, and it is a gentle refreshing rain to my soul. When a married man and a woman demonstrate a life of complementary roles is it a wonder.

And above all, Jesus is glorified.

There is nothing that has more eternal impact than a Christian life of men and women in their Godly roles. Please do not believe your self worthless or marginalized. I see. I watch. Others do too. We love the sweet life of a modest woman and the husbandly care of a submitted man. To Whom does the man submit? To Jesus. (Ephesians 5:22-33.)

Jesus is our all in all, sufficient for all things, eternally. And that is a praise to Him!

Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3

Posted in beth moore, egalitarian, feminism, jesus, priscilla shirer, prophecy

How the Christian secret feminists are reforming the definition of biblical womanhood. Part 2

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3

In Part 1 of examining this issue, I brought to your attention the first generation of Christian secret feminists and looked at their lives and their words. I looked at the second generation also, and examined the things they are saying and doing that usurp the biblical role for women as outlined in the bible. They are celebrity bible teachers who, under the guise of ministry and the cloak of Christianese, are in fact living an overt feminist life. I called these women Christian secret feminists.

In this part I would like to look at what biblical womanhood is rather than look at what it isn’t. We have seen enough of that in part 1, haven’t we?!

In 2007 a half day conference was held titled “Different By Design: A crucial call to faithfulness in gender issues.” The session was to be held just prior to the Desiring God conference. Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and Ligon Duncan, Professor at the Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) were the keynotes. If the call was crucial in 2007 almost 6 years ago, it is a siren call today.

Posted on this woman’s webpage is an archive of some of the issues discussed at that conference.

Wayne Grudem, Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies, wrote a book called Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth. The synopsis of the book states, “Egalitarians, or evangelical feminists, consider men’s and women’s roles in the home and church to be interchangeable. In this helpful book, Bible scholar Wayne Grudem considers over a hundred egalitarian arguments and finds them contrary to the Bible. According to Grudem, the Bible teaches that God values men and women equally. However, their roles in home and church are complementary to each other, not interchangeable. Arguing against both feminism on the left and male chauvinism on the right, his carefully researched handbook is a valuable resource defending the complementarian viewpoint.”

Professor Grudem wrote it because he was concerned that evangelical feminism (also called “egalitarianism”) has become a new path by which evangelicals are being drawn into the­ theological liberalism.”

Grudem defines evangelical feminism (or as I define the worse flavors of it, Christian secret feminists), “When I speak of “evangelical feminism” I mean a movement that claims there are no unique leadership roles for men in marriage or in the church. According to evangelical feminism, there is no leadership role in marriage that belongs to the husband simply because he is the hus­band, but leadership is to be shared between husband and wife accord­ing to their gifts and desires. And there are no leadership roles in the church reserved for men, but women as well as men can be pastors and elders and hold any office in the church.'”

For example, Al Moher explained why the issue of biblical womanhood is so important, “The fault lines of controversy in contemporary Christianity range across a vast terrain of issues, but none seems quite so volatile as the question of gender. As Christians have been thinking and rethinking these issues in recent years, a clear pattern of divergence has appeared. At stake in this debate is something more important than the question of gender, for this controversy reaches the deepest questions of Christian identity and biblical authority.” Continuing later in his piece, Mohler said, “The postmodern worldview embraces the notion of gender as a social construct. That is, postmodernists argue that our notions of what it means to be male and female are entirely due to what society has constructed as its theories of masculinity and femininity.”

It is important to remember that roles for men and women are not socially defined, but biblically defined. Even those women inside Christianity who attempt to redefine their roles by saying it is a gift or a ministry from God are in themselves redefining the bible because doing this proves they believe the bible to be insufficient as their authoritative guide for life.

So what is Biblical Womanhood? Dr. Georgia Purdom at Answers in Genesis begins her answer to that question by saying:

“The online Free Dictionary defines womanhood as “the composite of qualities thought to be appropriate to or representative of women.” How do we determine the qualities women should possess? Scripture is the ultimate authority.”

“Most Christians think immediately of Proverbs 31. While this passage is important to biblical womanhood, it is not the foundation. We need to go back to the beginning—Genesis 1. Here we see that God created both male and female in His image (Genesis 1:27).”

“However, God created men and women with physical, emotional, and mental differences; and while both bear the image of God, they do so uniquely. God also created men and women to have different roles in marriage (Genesis 2:18) and the church (1 Timothy 2:11–13), but again they are both image-bearers and equal in Christ (Galatians 3:28).”

Purdum continues by saying that in biblical womanhood “God has a lot to say about the qualities of a woman made in His image. Let’s take a look at a couple.” She cites modesty and work and goes into a solid biblical exposition of those two concepts in light of the biblically defined roles for women. I suggest you read it in context at the site for more depth. (source)

In another essay at Answers in Genesis called Are Gender Roles a Social Construct? by Steve Golden, the author looks at the curse on men and women after the fall and how this curse might be affecting us today.

“A final point regards the Curse in Genesis 3. Here we see that Adam and Eve already had distinct roles, but as a result of the Curse, their roles became toilsome and painful. In verse 16, God graciously allowed Eve (and her female descendants) to bear children, but childbirth would be associated with a good deal of physical pain as well as concerns about bringing a child into this cursed world. Additionally, God tells Eve, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). Christians differ over what this verse means, but two likely interpretations arise: (1) Eve will try to usurp her husband’s role as head, but God is requiring Adam to keep her from doing so, resulting in conflict; or (2) Eve will try to usurp her husband’s role as head, and he will exercise unbiblical male domination over her.”

We see the evil results of that sin and its resulting curse today. In my opinion, many men have become tired of the conflict and have given up (by no longer attending church, so as to avoid the whole issue) or have given in (by accepting the recapitulation of the roles as some of the female celebrity teachers’ husbands have done.) The second chapter of Titus illustrates what is expected of Godly behavior of men and woman, the youth and the old:

“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” (Titus 2:1-10)

Ladies, modest and humble and loving wives do not disrespect their husbands on Facebook. It’s ugly when you do that. Just had to get that off my chest while I was thinking about it.

An example I came across of immodesty and irreverence toward the elder women comes from Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer at the 2009 “Deeper Still” Christian Women’s Conference in Greensboro NC. Robin Schumacher of Confident Christians used the account from an attendee in his power point teaching called “Got Ethics? Where is the Line?”

An Example of Getting it Wrong: One of the questions that the speakers addressed was, “What is the best part of marriage for you, and what is the most challenging?” When it came time for Priscilla to address the “most challenging part” of her marriage, she explained that she has two small children (one of whom she is still breast-feeding) and well, “I’m often just too tired, if you know what I mean, ladies! [Wink, wink.]”

To my (saddened) surprise, the arena of 10,000 women actually stood up and cheered. Various chimes of laughter, screaming, and “yeah, girl!” boomed in the packed house. This continued for about a minute, while even Beth Moore nodded, laughed and clapped at Ms. Shirer’s comment. Priscilla continued by relating a story of how she often tries to creep into bed after her husband falls asleep so that he won’t start coming on to her. Beth Moore admitted the same, and the more they discussed, the louder the cheering arena shouted and clapped in agreement.

I sat in my seat and was profoundly disturbed. Here I was at a Christian Women’s Conference, and our “trusted” female leaders were joking about avoiding their husbands in bed.

What happened next, I believe, shocked everyone.

An Example of Getting it Right: As all the shouting and cheering continued while Priscilla and Beth discussed the “too tired” syndrome, I turned my attention to Kay Arthur. This very beautiful, very wise woman was silently flipping through her Bible, which she kept on her lap during the discussion. Finally she looked up at her two fellow speakers and said very kindly but unflinchingly, “Now girls, I understand how you feel. We have all been there, myself included. I remember once sleeping on the very edge of my bed so that I could avoid my husband. I know what you mean. But let me show you something, please.” Kay picked up her Bible and then simply spoke:

“1 Corinthians 7:4-5. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

Oh if you could have seen the faces on Ms. Moore and Ms. Shirer! Ms. Moore had her mouth half-open in disbelief, and Ms. Shirer raised her eyebrows and opened her eyes wider in shock. The Coliseum’s chorus of cheers changed to a disgruntled murmur. I do believe I was the only one clapping.

After a brief pause, the two rebuked women turned to the audience and said with a half eye-roll, “Oh, well Ms. Kay has a verse for everything, doesn’t she?!” The crowd laughed again. Ms. Shirer continued, commenting that her husband loves to eat, so she was doubtful there would be a lot of abstaining for fasting. Ms. Moore agreed. The crowd continued laughing and cheering.

Kay Arthur continued her uncompromising, yet gentle rebuke. “Girls, again, I understand fully what you’re saying, but I’m merely telling you what God has to say about sex between a husband and wife. You are not to deprive one another, except for prayer or fasting. So, unless you’re doing that, you’re not to avoid your husband… and he should not avoid you either.”

Nervous giggles and pauses were all that remained from Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer. Finally, Priscilla exclaimed, “Well! On to another topic, shall we?!” To which the crowd laughed enthusiastically.

Biblical womanhood is supposed to be submissive to elders, and yet Mrs Moore and Mrs Shirer reportedly disrespected an elder and refused an opportunity to apologize to the audience and repent to God. What an example they could have demonstrated of biblical womanhood to thousands of attendees! They could have edified Jesus! But instead they introduced an off-color topic, disrespected their husbands, engaged in unsound speech, dissed an elder woman, and refused submission to the clear teaching of the Word. (See Titus verses above). This is not biblical womanhood. It is Christian feminism. Mrs Arthur is to be praised for handling the situation in a biblical, loving fashion. THAT is biblical womanhood according to Titus 2!

The outcome of the curse in Genesis 3 is coming home to roost now. In Revelation 2 we read of a church that Jesus praises in some ways but condemns in others. Let’s finish the series with a look at it in terms of what happens to those who accept false teaching from women who rebel.

Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3

Posted in jesus, spiritual abuse, who is your covering

Out from under cover: Covering Theology and its impact

Posted on by elizabethprata

Spiritual abuse… it’s real and it is devastating.

I’ve written about the encroachment of the Gnostics into evangelical churches. Also the intrusion of mysticism, ecumenism and seeker friendly liberal theologies. All these attacks on the Bride of Christ, His church, are foretold in many scriptures in the New Testament. (2 Peter 2:1; Matthew 7:15; Gal 2:4; 1 Timothy 4:1 to name a few). Colossians itself was a corrective epistle to the church at Colossae which was falling under the sway of the Gnostics. The Nicolaitans of Revelation 2 are mentioned as a group bringing liberal false teachings, also.

But those are the liberal teachings and heresies. Just as much, we need to be wary of the legalistic, conservative teachings of the end time. These teachings are the ones that the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees brought in Jesus’s day.

The Pharisees were the original spiritual abusers. As Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun. Their special kind of abuse which brings bondage is coming in again. The legalistic, oppressive teachings are coming into church of today like a tsunami. It has different vocabulary, but the same source. It has a variation of the old methods for oppression, but the same outcome.

The Pharisees were a sect of the Jews who were the strictest of those observing the Mosaic Law, (Acts 26:5). The Pharisees were the most zealous, (Galatians 1:14), the most outwardly moral, (Luke 18:11) but the most inwardly dead (Matthew 23:27). They were oppressive to those who needed grace the most, and bitterly cruel in persecuting those who opposed them. (Matthew 23:4, Acts 9:1-2). They had everything backward- calling Christ’s miracles of the devil (Matthew 12:24) but believing themselves to be of God. (Luke 18:9, Acts 22:3).

How did the Pharisees spiritually abuse their sheep?

“Examples of spiritual abuse are found throughout the Bible. God describes (and condemns) the “shepherds of Israel” who feed themselves rather than the flock, who do not heal those who are hurting, or seek to bring back those who were driven away but rather discard them, ruling with force and cruelty (Ezekiel 34:1-10). Jesus reacted with anger against the thievery of the money changers in the Temple as they misused God’s people for selfish reasons (Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-47; John 2:13-16). He was angry at those more concerned with rules and regulations than with human suffering (Mark 3:1-5). In Matthew 23, Jesus describes the abusive spiritual leader in great detail. In John 9 the Pharisees “cast out” the man born blind simply because the truth he told about his healing exposed their own corruption. In Acts 7:51-56, Stephen called the Jewish leaders to account over their spiritual abuse.” (Source)

Others were afraid they would be cast out:  “Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.” (John 12:42). Threat of dismissal or excommunication is a favorite tactic of abusive leaders. A shepherd’s job is to feed, nurture, care for and keep safe the flock. The abusive leaders of Jesus’s day were more content to simply throw people away.

So authoritarianism, oppression, and legalism was a characteristic of abusive leaders who were more interested in themselves than their flocks.

And so it is today with some.

I am not talking of the difficulty inherent in a proper cycle of church discipline. I am all for that. The bible is followed and Jesus is the invisible but very present overseer of the proceedings. If all is done biblically, prayerfully, and correctly, the best case is to restore a wayward one. For today’s purposes I am not talking of discipline but of abuse that perverts, uses, or simply ignores proper church discipline plan outlined in Matthew 18.

I am also not talking of not behaving well for your pastors, deacons, leaders and teachers. I honor those men highly, and pray for them because they are on the frontlines of satan’s targets for spiritual attack. I esteem  them, pray for them, tithe for them, praise them, encourage them, speak well of them, but I do not follow them. I follow Jesus.

Even though we know there is nothing new under the sun, where did this latest iteration of legalistic abuse come from?

Though we can trace it back to the Pharisees, and indeed, all the way back to the Garden, of this generation we can see a heightening of the authoritarian tendencies emerge in the 1970s. Five Florida pastors in the Charismatic denominations (Bob Mumford, Derek Prince, Charles Simpson, and Don Basham) felt that the Charismatic movement was too loose and that there was not enough accountability. The five created an accountability system of hierarchical structure in the shape of a pyramid. The five pastors, of course, were at the top. They all claimed they had submitted to one another, and they made a national network of followers who formed pyramids of sheep and shepherds below them. Down through the pyramid went the orders, while up the same pyramid went the tithes. This was the beginning of the Shepherding Movement.

But between the Shepherding Movement of the 70s and today’s spiritually abusive pharisee, there is the book called Under Cover: The Promise of Protection Under His Authority, by John Bevere. It came out in 2001, and it is the answer to every Pharisee’s prayer. The book itself is widely held to be error-ridden, if not heretical, but that does not stop every would-be Pharisee from making it his manual.

The book brought a new theology, called “Covering Theology.”

“Covering theology is an erroneous doctrine that claims all Christians must be under the authority (covering) of a church leader to be protected from the warfare of the devil. It also claims this same covering is necessary to receive God’s blessings. However, there is no Scripture foundation for this doctrine. Covering theology is a leftover from the debunked Shepherding Movement that appeared about 40 years ago.” (source)

Lies Under Cover is a segment of a blog series exploring today’s apostasy by Blogos/GotQuestions. This part asks the question:

“Should believers allow pastors to rule over them? This posting is part 2 in an 8 part series about deception in the church addressing the Under Cover book by John Bevere, its teaching, its origination, why it is wrong, and its impact on the church.”

It is a very good essay and the series itself is good too. I recommend it. Here are some excerpts from the essay on the Covering Theology. The essay continues:

“Not too long ago I learned about a new question circulating in the evangelical circle asking “Who is your covering?” Soon thereafter the full meaning of that question became apparent. In the church I attended, its leaders announced they were adopting the Under Cover teaching by John Bevere. The central theme for the teaching is God guarantees protection for believers who submit to pastoral authority. On the flipside of the theme, failure to submit to the pastor places believers outside God’s protection, removing the protective hand of God. In other words, a believer who does not submit to and obey the pastor falls out from under the protective covering of God and that of the church. After researching the teaching, I found it to be pure heresy.”

“John Bevere’s heresy teaches that obedience to the pastor is on the same footing as obedience to God. To disobey the pastor, even when the pastor is wrong, is to disobey God because the pastor is always in authority and God the ultimate authority. In other words, the pastor stands in authority between Jesus and the body of believers, becoming the spiritual covering over his or her church.”

Covering theology emphasizes the following:

  • Sin is disobedience to God’s authority
  • Grace is the power of God to obey him
  • All authority is instituted by God
  • God establishes his rule in the church through people he has delegated to be his authority
  • The 5-fold ministry (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) represents God’s authority on earth
  • Obedience to the Lord requires obedience to God’s delegated authorities (employers, church leaders, civil authorities)
  • Rebellion against God’s delegated authority is rebellion against God
  • Rebellion to authority opens one up to the demonic realm resulting in deception
  • People should live by the principle of obedience rather than reason
  • People should always obey authority [usually the pastor] unless they are clearly instructed to violate scripture [but he is the final interpreter of scripture, so…]
  • Spiritual authority and blessing flows to those who suffer under authority
  • God does not judge people on the fruit of their life but on how faithfully they followed authority
  • Those outside the local church and the covering of its leaders are at serious risk of spiritual attack

The key is submission to an authority figure who presumes to be standing in the stead of Jesus. It is similar to the Pharisees’s presumptions, who thought they were the final decision-maker of interpeting what were really their own rules rather than themselves submitting the Word of God and to Jesus the Messiah when He arrived.

If you are in a church where the pastor has set himself up as the sole or final arbiter of spiritual matters, interpretations, or church or financial decisions, you may be in a spiritually abusive church.

If you have a palpable feeling, or have had an overt threat of excommunication, unless you blindly follow the pastor in all he says and does, with no questions asked, you may be in a spiritually abusive church.

If you have been told that performance/work/submission is the indicator of faith, you may be in a spiritually abusive church.

If you have been told to leave a church or fired from a ministry because you were told you were divisive, critical, a hazard to the brethren etc., but have NOT been through the steps for church discipline outlined in Matt. 18:16-18, you may be in a spiritually abusive church.

If you have been threatened with the phrase “You will be out from under my covering” you ARE in a spiritually abusive church.

R.C. Sproul writes, “The church is called not only to a ministry of reconciliation, but a ministry of nurture to those within her gates. Part of that nurture includes church discipline…” but the key words are nurture and  reconciliation. The man who was healed by Jesus and went to the Pharisees was not nurtured nor reconciled to leadership. They tossed the man out summarily. Read John 9:13-38 and see if you don’t weep at the terrible grilling the abusive Pharisaical authorities put the man under, and their abuse of him who had the Light come into His life but instead who wanted to put him back in the dark!

Across the country, parishioners are now being challenged to legalistically take oaths, perform vows and sign covenants. People who question the legitimacy of these activities or even ask for a biblical foundation for them are attacked, dismissed from ministries, and/or told to leave the church, all without benefit of biblical standards for reconciliation or even proper discipline. It is bewildering, devastating, and causes much harm to the body of Christ.

It happened to me.

Of all that occurred, what captured my attention the most was threat that “you no longer have our support or covering.” Though I was told I was negative, immature, led by the devil, divisive, critical, and more, I knew I was not those things. I was surprised that the bible was not opened, consulted or interpreted for my wayward behalf in pursuit of reconciliation for whatever wrong I had committed. Nor I was corrected in grace and love. I was confused as to what was happening because it didn’t jibe with the outline in Matthew for church discipline. It was simply an attack and a dismissal.

But what intrigued me was the phrase ‘no longer have the covering.’

It immediately rang bells in my spirit, and seemed ‘off.’ What covering? Where was this covering? Why didn’t I know about it before? What will happen if I don’t have this covering? Where is it in the bible? It all seemed so vague and somehow…wrong. Now that I’ve read the theology behind the Bevere book Under Cover, I know why. Things clicked, finally. It is a false theology used and wielded by hyper-authoritarian pastors and leaders and teachers who seek to control rather than share and worship on the same blood-soaked ground that Jesus died on for us all.

I grieve so deeply for churches that do this to the lambs and the sheep. I mourn for people who are withering under leadership that oppresses rather than shepherd rightly. I lament the loss of time and spiritual growth for people who, when threatened with dire events should they be loosed from some artificial pastor “covering”, stay in a church where the vine is withering.

I’m passionate about the Christian life. I am a sinner and not perfect, to be sure, but I strive so hard to live up to what He wants us to be for the lost world’s behalf. I want to do my part in the Spirit’s work of shining the light in me brighter and the church I’m in to be blessed by me and not embarrassed by me. I know a bit of the bible enough to understand some of the standards of what Jesus wants the church to be, and when it isn’t that, it is a grief. When it is deliberately wrested away from His holy ground for abusive purposes it is a woe that cuts my heart in two.

Far from the dire threats that were leveled against me in having some unbiblical covering removed, coming out from ‘under cover’ is a praise to the Lord, who is the Great Shepherd! Finding a good church with leadership one can trust is a heaven-sent gift! However through the praises, I will not diminish the toll. It is a devastating thing to happen. Ask the Petry family, formerly leaders in Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church. Jonna Petry wrote, “Seeing your loved ones abused, their hearts broken, their emotions heavy and dark, and their faith nearly destroyed, is the greatest pain of all.”

I shudder to think of this happening as frequently as it does – and it does. When it happens to families, or employees, or people who are new in the faith, or tossed from a church where they had been for a long time, I absolutely grieve just thinking about them!

Jonna’s story and mine and I am sure, many others, has a redemptive ending. The Lord Jesus is trustworthy and He knits together broken hearts, opens eyes to see, allows for time to heal, and supplies with deeper faith than ever before. I love the Lord even more now that I did before and I never thought my love for Him would have deepened so beautifully, but it did. He is faithful in trials and all you need to do is trust Him.

I wanted to bring you this information for several reasons:

–The watchful who are on guard against liberalism might miss the legalism creeping in,
–You are not crazy, spiritual abuse is real,
–Watch out for talk of ‘the covering‘ !!!!!!!!! It is a huge red flag!
–JESUS IS LORD and He is love. Rest in Him even through trials. He has a reason for all that He does, even if you can’t see it through the tears.

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

RESOURCES

Covering and Authority

Covering: Impact to the Church

Joyful Exiles

Pure Provender

Posted in afterlife, eben alexander, jesus, NDE, near death experience

Afterlife exists says top brain surgeon

Posted on by elizabethprata

Afterlife exists says top brain surgeon
“Dr Eben Alexander, a Harvard-educated neurosurgeon, fell into a coma for seven days in 2008 after contracting meningitis. During his illness Dr Alexander says that the part of his brain which controls human thought and emotion “shut down” and that he then experienced “something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.” In an essay for American magazine Newsweek, which he wrote to promote his book Proof of Heaven, Dr Alexander says he was met by a beautiful blue-eyed woman in a “place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones” and “shimmering beings.”

Why does it make the news when some British brain dead doctor wakes up and says he saw heaven but when Jesus, in front of witnesses, died and rose again, in front of witnesses, the world yawns? Just think about that for a minute.

I am sad for the doctor. And he wrote a whole book called “Proof of Heaven” ??!! Jesus wrote a whole book – the bible – which is proof of heaven.

The man’s medically induced, hospital-drug involved experience in no way proves heaven. He experienced something. It wasn’t heaven. The man’s brain was swelled up, neurologically destroyed for a period, and drugs were keeping him alive. Anything could be happening in his brain at that moment! His experience is proof of nothing.

If you notice all the people who say they have been brought to heaven, their visions do not line up with what the bible says. The doctor saw cotton-candy clouds, and women angels (not biblical) but NOT Jesus? If he is saved, the man would be with Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8a). If he was not saved, he would not be in heaven.

What did Ezekiel see? God (Ezek. 1:26)
What did Daniel see? God (Dan. 7:9)
What did Isaiah see? God ((Isa. 6:1)
What did Jacob see? God (Gen. 28:12, 13)
What did Stephen see? Jesus (Acts 7:55)
What did John see? God (Rev. 4:2)
What did Micaiah see? God. (2 Chron. 18:18)
What did Paul see? He wasn’t allowed to say!

Not only do these trips to heaven not line up with the bible, they do not line up with each other. No one, like Colton Burpo or Don Piper or this doctor etc., saw the same things as each other. They each saw different things.

Now satan, who is a liar and the father if lies, wants to delude someone, wouldn’t you think he could give an unsaved person a vision and delude them into thinking they saw heaven and are headed there? That they are all set and do not need Jesus for salvation? Which is more likely: Jesus giving tours of heaven which differ from each other, or satan, father of lies deluding people into thinking they are saved by giving them a false vision?

Here is a good 15-min video of a discernment minister named Justin Peters explaining why these ‘visits to the afterlife’ and visions of heaven are false.

Justin Peters Explains Why Stories of Trips To Heaven Do Not Line up With the Bible

Sorry to burst your bubble, people.. 🙂 We want to be excited, but we have to be discerning.

Posted in jesus, judgment, winnowing fork

The wheat and tares. Is the winnowing is about to begin?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Matthew 3:12:

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

The way the ancients used to process their wheat is to gather it from the field, place it on the hardened threshing floor, and thresh and winnow it. The threshing-floor is a hollowed out spot with a packed earthen floor on the top of a hill where the late afternoon wind kicks up. The first part of the process is threshing. They thresh the wheat stalks by passing a sledge over them on the threshing-floor. Dragging the sledge over the stalk rolls the chaff kernel off the wheat stalk. You can see one woman standing on a sledge in the photo. The sledge is the tied-together planks with turned up front. Sledging separates the wheat from the chaff. You want the wheat. The chaff is the hard kernel husk, and you don’t want that. It is inedible. As the threshing process goes on they mound the stalks in the middle of the floor.

Next they take a winnowing fork, poke it into the mound, and toss all the material – wheat, chaff, straw, weevils, etc, – into the air. The wind carries the chaff away. The heavier wheat falls to the ground.

A threshing floor in the hills of Galilee – the women threshing
A threshing floor in the hills of Galilee - the women winnowing Palestine
Library of Congress
Primitive winnowing [picture] : [Palestine, World War II]
Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962. Primitive winnowing [picture] : [Palestine, World War II]
National Library of Australia

When they finish the threshing and winnowing, they gather the broken straws and bundle them for fuel to be burned. The wheat is gathered and tied together in bundles also and put into the barn.

The Matthew verse speaks to the judgment of Jesus. The chaff are unbelievers which will be burned with an unquenchable fire. That speaks to the fire of hell which will torment the unbeliever forever.

The wheat that has been gathered into the barn is the raptured and resurrected saints gathered to Jesus to the place He has prepared for us.

Now here is the Parable of the Weeds (Tares)

“He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30).

In regards to that parable, I see some things happening in Christendom that are really pretty startling. I’m watching people I know, people who claim to be Christians, falling into activities or sins or speech that are not Christian. This is very prophetic.

Here is Jesus’ explanation of the parable.

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. (Matthew 13:36-40)

You see, the world is filled with tares as well as wheat. Satan came in and secretly brought in destructive heresies and false workers to spew them in order to bring reproach onto the name of Jesus and hinder His kingdom on earth. To illustrate this, Jesus told the parable of the weeds, posted above. The weed is darnel, which enemies used to sow into an enemy’s field. This was a problem in the ancient days, so much so that Rome passed a law prohibiting it and levied severe penalties to anyone caught doing it. It is a catastrophic way to destroy the economy of your enemy, because the darnel looks exactly like wheat, until the very last moment when the ear appears. Darnel is called “false wheat” in many parts of the world. In the bible it is also known as tares.

In Montana they are combating Persian darnel infestation. Montana State University Extension reports, “At high densities, Persian darnel could cause crop yield loss of up to 83 percent, 70 percent and 57 percent for spring wheat, canola and sunflower, respectively.” An 83% loss of your grain certainly is catastrophic.

We know that false Christians populate the world. The Parable of the Tares tells us this. Also, the following verses are a few that tell us that there will be false ones among us. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15; 2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 1:16)

Additionally, the bible’s record of the false ones’ future pleas to Jesus tell us there will be “many” who were false. They will say, “Lord, Lord, did we not…” and He will say “Depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21-23). These are people who looked the Christian part, acted the part, even attended church and prophesied in His name. We couldn’t tell they were saved or not because that is not our job.

We can, however, often get a sense of whether a person is genuinely saved or not. We can compare their life that is allegedly sanctified to the Word and if they bear no fruit we suspect the worst. We can pray for them in that case. But we can’t uproot the wheat because we don’t truly know for sure if they are wheat or darnel. That is not our job.

Forerunner Commentary explains, “The bad seeds grow to become poisonous weeds that allow only the healthiest of the wheat to survive. … Only when the wheat has matured can the tares be detected. Then the tares are gathered together in bundles in the field and destroyed by fire. … Many who are not in the process of conversion resemble those who are. Just like true Christians, they go to church, pray, and read the Bible, but they are only religious hobbyists. Jesus calls them “sons of the wicked one” (Matthew 13:38), and being tares, they will be destroyed. [Mathew G. Collins, Forerunner Commentary.]

The harvest time has not begun yet, because that is the Rapture and then the Day of the Lord, AKA the Tribulation. The darnel weed is identified from the real wheat at the end when the growth is nearly complete. Though they are not uprooted yet, we are beginning to see who is a wheat and who is a tare. At the very end, when the ear begins to appear, right before the harvest, we see what’s what. I think the very fact that so many Christians are apostasizing, veering away from the faith, reveals how very late we are in the age. The world is full of darnel.

If you grind darnel along with wheat into flour it will cause a kind of drunkenness. It makes a person stagger, vomit, and generally act stupid. The tares of today are acting like that.

January 31, 2012, Atlanta pastor “Bishop” Eddie Long
is wrapped in a torah, draped in a prayer shawl,
crowned a king, then paraded around in his throne
A Christian church advocating getting a tattoo for Lent?!
And what’s with the caption about ‘Jesus falling the first time??

Darnel-driven drunken silliness abounds. I could post photo after photo that illustrates it.

I believe that when we see such overt tare-like behavior that we are seeing the end of the maturing process. If the tares are so easily detected now, it must be close to the end. This is my opinion. We are at such a close time to the harvest that the darnel’s head has appeared and we can begin to see their real state. Verse 26 in Matthew 13 says “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.”

The false Christians are becoming evident. This process has amazed me with its rapidity. In my opinion, since the false Christians are so evident, which indicates that the tares are mature, it means the winnowing is very likely about to begin.

Posted in bayou corne, cascades slip quakes, end time, jesus, Louisiana sinkhole

Restless earth: Louisiana sinkhole and Cascades slip quakes

Posted on by elizabethprata

Time for an update on the Louisiana sinkhole.

In August ABC News reported that a large sinkhole had opened up in Bayou Corne, in Assumption Parish, Louisiana. Originally the hole was 526 feet from northeast to southwest and 640 feet from northwest to southeast. Two workers had to be rescued when the boat they had tied their tree to fell into the sinkhole as it suddenly expanded.

Prior to the sinkhole’s appearance in August, throughout the month of July residents had been puzzled by earth tremors. Assumption Parish is in an area where seismic activity is just about nil. The tremors were accompanied by bubbles in the water and a gas smell. The USGS got involved and brought testing equipment, but found nothing seismically related.

Then in August the sinkhole appeared. The gas smell intensified, and after a short period, an emergency evacuation was issued for residents living and working near the affected area.

On August 10 and then again on August 13 I blogged about it. Officials became concerned that the sinkhole and resultant bubbles and gas smell may be linked to work by Texas Brine in an underwater salt cavern. The sinkhole may be happening because a salt cavern that had been used to store butane and then plugged might have structural integrity problems. A sudden collapse could be catastrophic, releasing thousands of cubic feet of highly flammable material.

“The situation is made all the worrisome because the sinkhole is believed to be close to a well containing 1.5 million barrels of liquid butane, a highly volatile liquid that turns into a highly flammable vapor upon release. A breach of that well, Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack has said, could be catastrophic,” Fox News reported.

Like the failure of the Macondo Well in the Gulf of Mexico, officials deemed it necessary to test it, and either extract the gas or re-cap it. Officials from Texas Brine began working on a relief well.

Meanwhile, the sinkhole continued to expand. As answers were not forthcoming, residents began to get angry. Meetings were held. Then at one meeting, no officials from Texas Brine showed up, angering residents even more. Meeting venues were changed, and there were denials and allegations of coverup.

The Insurance Journal noted the serious impact to property and businesses.

Then today there is serious news. “Officials: High levels of gas in water wells by sinkhole — Potential health risk, fire/explosion — Immediate remediation needed — “Heed evacuation orders” “

And the tremors came back, and are being felt as far away as 45 miles, over in the next parish.
“A little before 2 p.m. Wednesday, reports began flooding officials’ offices about tremors with loud thunder noises some 45 miles from Louisiana’s giant sinkhole and about 140 miles northwest of the BP-wrecked Macondo Prospect oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. Even residents in brick houses were rattled by the quakes.”

New flyover footage shows the road dissolving into the sinkhole
“Residents report that the entire salt dome area is sinking, that seismic activity is being felt and that chemicals are smelled miles from the sinkhole. Gas bubbling sites now total 17, the latest ones reported to be miles from the sinkhole as gas bubbles as far away as Lake Peigneur, 80 miles west of the sinkhole, are also increasing and alarming locals there.”

This situation is so bad, and is repeated throughout the world. Earth changes that baffle officials and outpace man’s remedies for stopping them are increasing like birth pangs upon a woman. God is demonstrating to us that the earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. (Psalm 24:1). We must trust Him, not man’s solutions, not man’s reports, not man’s science. Science won’t be able to explain why every island flees away. It won’t be able to tell those that dwell on the earth why 100 lb hailstones fall from the sky. Or why the 1/3 of the sun blinks out. All those are future prophesied events that will occur in the Tribulation, described in Revelation 16:20, Revelation 16:9, Revelation 8:12.

Scientists can’t explain to us right now the newly discovered phenomenon of silent earthquakes. Silent earthquakes are rippling under the Cascades Mountains in America’s Northwest.
“Parts of Washington and Oregon are in the midst of silent earthquakes this week. You can’t feel this so-called “slow slip” quake and it doesn’t cause damage. Still, scientists want to learn more about the recently discovered phenomenon. Little is certain so far, but there’s a possibility these deep tremors could trigger a damaging earthquake or serve as a warning bell for the Big One.’

Yes, we are receiving warnings for bigger quakes, all at the sovereign authority of God. In His grace, He is warning us that He is sovereign over us all. He welcomes people who repent of their sins, but the warning is if you do not repent, He is coming soon in judgment.

“Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” (John 9:39)

“Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” (John 12:31)

Jesus came to present His Light to the world so that those who repent would be saved. He also came for individual judgment, for those who refuse to repent will not be saved. Felix heard of the judgment to come, and he trembled. (Acts 24:25)

The Tribulation will be a time not so much of individual judgment as it is now, but more of corporate judgment. The eschatalogical (end times) judgments to come will soon be here,(Matthew 24:27-25:46) and none will escape. (Hebrews 12:23)

Are you ready to face Jesus, to Whom has been given all authority to judge men? (John 5:27).

Posted in jesus, middle east, prophecy, syria, turkey

UPDATED. The Obama debate failure, and Turkey-Syria tensions climb to unbearable levels

Posted on by elizabethprata

Another mortar has fallen into Turkish territory, and Turkey is even more incensed now. Turkey is a member of NATO. NATO nations are allied by treaty and must come to each other’s defense if attacked. The Lebanon Daily Star reports this afternoon, “Israel says Syrian mortar strike was attack on NATO. Says attack on one NATO member attack on all“

“PARIS: Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said on Thursday a deadly Syrian mortar strike on a Turkish town had to be considered an attack on a member of the NATO alliance. Israel is technically at war with Damascus and occupies the Golan Heights that it seized in the 1967 war and later annexed, but it has generally taken a cautious line on the uprising in its Arab neighbour. “One has to say that according to the NATO treaty, it was an attack on a member of NATO, and that means France,” Meridor told reporters during a visit to Paris, referring to France’s membership of NATO. Syria and Israel have not exchanged fire in three decades, and a parliamentary briefing in July by the Israeli armed forces chief about the risk of “uncontrollable deterioration” in Syria were interpreted by local media as a caution against opening a new fighting front with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”

—————
As reaction to the Presidential candidate debate last night, The Washington Times reports,

HURT: Obama the debater: Making Jimmy Carter look awesome
“Bewildered and lost without his teleprompter, President Obama flailed all around the debate stage last night. He was stuttering, nervous and petulant. It was like he had been called in front of the principal after goofing around for four years and blowing off all his homework.”

It is so interesting to see what the Lord has in store for us here in America through these next weeks and months (Until January’s inauguration). Which king will he set up for us? Which King will he take down? How will we give an account to Him, individually, for our decisions?

It is also interesting to see the Lord’s work in the Middle East. This past June, Syria downed a Turkish jet. Turkey was angry and with their hair-trigger, almost retaliated militarily. NATO and the UN calmed Turkey down. The Reuters article about the June incident opened this way:

“Syria shot down a Turkish warplane over the Mediterranean on Friday and Ankara warned it would respond decisively to the incident that threatened to open a new international dimension in the 16-month revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syria said the Turkish aircraft was flying low, well inside Syrian territorial waters when it was shot down. With the second biggest army in NATO, a force hardened by nearly 30 years of fighting Kurdish rebels, Turkey would be a formidable foe for the Syrian army which is already struggling to put down a 16-month-old revolt.”

Always remember that. Turkey has the 2nd largest military in NATO, after America. They are hardened from fighting Kurds in the desert and they are less and less secular as each year goes on. The country is Muslim.

Then yesterday Syria shot mortars into Turkey. The spill-over of the revolution in Syria has affected Turkish citizens along the border. Turkey had been wary these last two years of the Syrian unrest, and then became inflamed ever since the June jet incident. The Turkish Parliament and the President became incensed after the shelling crossed into Turkey this weekend, and have been consistently retaliating.

map

The BBC reports, “Turkey’s territory has been hit by fire from Syria on several occasions since the uprising against Mr Assad began, but Wednesday’s incident was the most serious…. The Turkish parliament is discussing authorising troops to cross into Syria. But government sources say Turkey is not planning to declare war on Syria. … Nato has held an urgent meeting to support Turkey, demanding “the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally”. The US, the UK and the European Union have already condemned Syria’s actions.”

In Isaiah 17 it is prophesied that Damascus is destroyed in one night, Poof, it’s done, razed to the ground and uninhabitable. The rest of Syria becomes desolate. It is interesting that the prophecy doesn’t say how Syria becomes desolate, nor who does it. It could be Israel, making sure that chemical weapons don’t get released into the hands of Hezbollah. It could be the rebels themselves, on purpose or accidentally. It could be Turkey, now that we see this new tension. We just don’t know how it happens. Some have speculated that Damascus’s demise happens via nuclear bomb, because what other weapon can raze a thriving, ancient city of 3 million so quickly and so permanently? On the other hand, maybe it will be a ‘natural’ incident, like an earthquake. With the current tension in the area ongoing, we just don’t know the details or the timing. Only the results. And that is what makes it so unbearable.

In the Gog Magog war prophesied by Ezekiel in chapters 37-38, Turkey is one of the participants which take part in a surprise attack on Israel. Other nations in the military alliance are Russia, Iran, and parts of northern Africa, including Libya, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Syria is not mentioned in that battle, nor are they mentioned in the Psalm 83 war. It is therefore thought that the prophecy about Syria’s destruction prophesied in Isaiah 17 had already come about. It is thought that something has to happen to ally these disparate nations, which are enemies now (Russia is on Syria’s side and has asked that Turkey remain neutral in this latest cross-border military incident.)

But something has to change to make these nations that are culturally and religiously opposed, come together and attack their common enemy, Israel.

In the Middle East, Turkey and Iran are the two powerhouses, each with a different flavor of Islam and each vying for top dog status in the region. Just because they are Muslim, or are neighbors, does not make them friends. They have their cultural differences, internal and external skirmishes, and ego-driven needs, too.

The region was already stressed to the max from the Arab Spring, a shift from the US to China for world’s dominating superpower, and internal unrest they have had to deal with. The tectonic plates of geo-political power have been shifting under their feet (as well as ours) and they are trying to deal with a new world order that is being formed before our eyes.  That is why I say it is so interesting to see what the Lord is doing.

In the region, the trigger fingers of each President or Leader already itching. The Turkey-Syria shelling deepens the tension to a degree I feel is worth noting. If things were teetering before, this incident pushed it to crazy teetering.

The Jerusalem Post reports this morning, “Turkey strikes back at Syria, vows to protect its borders.”
“Ankara seeks parliamentary approval for foreign military operations after a mortar shell kills five in Turkish border town; NATO ambassadors meet to discuss the threat to a member state.”

Please continue to pray for our Christian friends in the affected regions. Also pray for the lost over there, who are close their eternal destiny of death and separation from Jesus forever every day. The area is going to erupt any moment, and we will see (or not see, if the rapture comes first) Isaiah 17 lived out, and Damascus destroyed. Psalm 83 lived out, and Israel victorious. Perhaps we will even see the beginning of the Gog Magog battle, should the Lord tarry.

Though times are stressful and tense, we do rejoice that the Lord is in control. It is all happening exactly as He said it would, lo those thousands of years ago!

Posted in christian persecution, christianity, jesus

Anti-Christian hatred is rising

Posted on by elizabethprata

Hatred. Hatred of each other, Hatred toward God. Vicious hatred of Jesus. It is all rising.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18).

“The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.” (Proverbs 29:27)

“All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10:22)

“Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.” (1 John 3:13)

In Jerusalem, Christianity is increasingly targeted. The Jerusalem Post reports, “Vandals ‘price tag’ Jerusalem monastery“
“JERUSALEM, Oct. 2 Assailants vandalized the Franciscan Convent on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion early Tuesday morning, in the third price tag attack against a Christian site this year. According to police, vandals spray-painted the words “price tag” and “Jesus is a bastard” on the door of the convent, located adjacent to the Dormition Abbey cathedral. … Assistant commander Moshe Bareket, chief of the David precinct in Jerusalem, confirmed that police were notified of the incident early Tuesday morning by a priest. “We will do everything we can to get to the bottom of whoever spray-painted these sentences,” Bareket said outside the convent.” (photo source)

It was not the first time that extremists had vandalized the church, and every few months authorities have to deal with some kind of graffiti in the area, the article states. Vandals scrawled “Jesus is a monkey” in large orange letters on the outside of the Latrun monastery. They also burned the wooden door at the monastery entrance. earlier this year, at the Valley of the Cross Monastery in Jerusalem, cars and a fence were covered with anti-Christian graffiti, and cars’ tires were slashed. The vandals wrote “Jesus drop dead,” “Death to Christians” and “Kahane was right.”

Though the hate-vandals are as yet unknown to authorities, the media outlet Russia Today displayed their own bias when they reported on the incident, by blaming Israeli settlers. The reporter wrote:

“Radical Jewish settlers vandalized a Christian church outside of Jerusalem, spray-painting “Jesus is a bastard” and “price tag” on its outer door. Such attacks have been on the rise despite police promises to curb hate crimes in the Holy Land.”

I must make a point. Most of the secular world and much of the Christian world believes Catholicism to be part of the Christian faith. Catholicism is not. It is a false religion. However, idolaters don’t know that and they target Monasteries anyway.

A horrific attack on a church service for children targeted a Christian church in Nairobi, Kenya this week. Worthy News reports, “A grenade attack by suspected Islamist militants rocked an Anglican church in Kenya’s capital Nairobi killing a nine-year-old boy and injuring several others, the church and police said Sunday, September 30. The blast occurred during a Sunday school service for young children at the Anglican Saint Polycarp Church, which lies in the Pangani district on the outskirts of Nairobi.” (photo source)

I read in one comment stream, “nothing a good Interfaith potluck supper won’t solve, eh?”

They hate Jesus.

“But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.” (John 15:25)

And they hate the faithful. Take heart. If they hate Jesus and they hate us because of Jesus, we are in good company! They may hate us, but we love each other! If you are in a part of the world where grenades are not being lobbed at your kids just for being Christian (hatred without cause) then please pray for those who are. And if you are in a part of the world where just living for Christ is cause for death, take heart. WE ARE PRAYING FOR YOU!