Category: judgment

Posted in christmas, judgment, wrath

Merry Christmas, God’s wrath is coming

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Christmas season is one where we call for peace on earth and goodwill to men. It is the season of love and joy and harmony. We pray and hope that we display the best qualities of these things to one and all.

Do we realize just what a radical love Jesus has called us to?

We think of the sweet babe in swaddling clothes, the still night broken by heavenly glory lighting the fields, angel choruses, and the grace of God. And it is, but these thoughts and visions in our mind are or should be counterbalanced by the reason for them: His wrath.

The reason He sent Jesus is to rescue us…from His wrath.

I’d like to contrast Godly love with Godly wrath in the lives of two bible people: Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was taken as a captive away from his homeland as a youth or early teenager. He was trained and put to work in Nebuchadnezzar’s court. He was threatened with death, his three closest friends were thrown into a fiery furnace, and he had to serve a pagan king with all its godless disgusting practices around him every minute. Yet, Daniel was compassionate and he loved Nebuchadnezzar as God would want us to love our enemies.

Nebuchadnezzar

When it came time for Daniel to reveal the interpretation of a particularly fearsome dream to the king, Daniel hesitated. Here is the scene:

“Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. The king answered and said, “Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.” Belteshazzar answered and said, “My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies!” (Daniel 4:19).

Daniel knew that the dream meant God was going to cut Nebuchadnezzar down like a tree and make him go insane for seven years. The king was going to be crawling around on all fours eating grass like an animal. Daniel’s level of compassion was such that not one ounce of chortling, glee, or gloating came over him. He was troubled, dismayed, and didn’t even want to tell the king because he did not want the king to be troubled himself.

How many times do we get a bit of news where someone else was going to be cut down to size, and we cannot wait to share it? If it is an enemy all the better. Yet Daniel was compassionate toward the king, who was holding him captive and at any time could take his life for any reason or for no reason. THAT is Godly love.

Now the wrath. Why did God cut Nebuchadnezzar down and make him go insane for seven years? At the end of the interpretation, Daniel said to the king, “O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed,”

William Blake’s Nebuchadnezzar, Wikipedia commons

God’s wrath always comes because of unrepentant sin. Romans 1:18 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

When we enter the Christmas season, remember peace on earth but remember wrath, too. Too harsh, you say? No.

“This is how Paul begins the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness,” as John MacArthur said. (source)

The good news begins with wrath. It ends with love.

MacArthur again, “Our Lord had more to say about judgment, more to say about destruction, more to say about damnation, and more to say about hell than anybody else recorded in Scripture. And if you think it unusual that this great epistle on the doctrine of salvation opens with this statement about judgment it’s because you really haven’t thought very long about how the whole New Testament opens.”

source

Daniel’s radical love of Nebuchadnezzar was Godly because God loves the sinner. His grace saves the repentant sinner and when we convert, we remember His love and the fact that there but for the grace of God go I. So Daniel loved even his enemy, and wanted the best for him. And what a glorious thing that was, because in each chapter Nebuchadnezzar the king gets closer to the dramatic moment when finally, finally, he converts.

Note that when Daniel shared the news about God Daniel did not say, “God loves you and has a great plan for your life.” He urged the king to stop sinning. Eventually Nebuchadnezzar did:

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” (Daniel 4:37).

And the second part of Daniel’s message was the multiplying part- stop sinning and show mercy to those who are.

Wow. That is what Godly love does. It multiplies, and we continue in that love because we remember His wrath. We love because He first loved us, (1 John 4:19), but we remember that sin brings wrath. The whole story must include those two bookends- wrath and love.

“Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.” (Deuteronomy 32:35).

The Lord will punish the sins of His people in due time. His wrath will be unleashed but He sent Jesus as the love offering and rescue from that wrath. How can any part of the Good News omit that? Even at Christmastime? It cannot.

To sum up, I am not saying that for the Christmas season we go around saying, “Merry Christmas, God’s wrath is coming!” LOL. But it is part of the story.

source

Instead, envision the scene in Luke 2:8-20 where the shepherds are guarding their flocks by night, and the angels appear with a message. Particularly envision verse 11, (For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord), and know that this is the moment of rescue from wrath. The word savior in Greek used here means–

“properly, the Savior, Jesus Christ who saves believers from their sins and delivers them into His safety.” (Strong’s 4990), Safety from what? Wrath. Delivers them from what? Wrath. The Christmas message is one of loving rescue from wrath, and no witnessing of the Good News nor proclamations about it are complete unless both sides of the story are told.

Here is one last anecdote from modern day culture about the love and wrath bookends. 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?”

To make a long story short, Phil invited the guy to his house, about a ten hour drive from where the guy was calling from, and praise the Lord, the guy showed up the next week. Phil preached sin, death, and wrath, and the guy and his buddy both cried like babies on his living room floor. Before sunup, they were baptized.

Phil said he never saw the guy again – until 17 years later, when Phil was preaching in Alabama. Phil was led to a room and the guy was there, he was now one of the leaders of the church. He went from unsaved, blaspheming godless man to a Godly leader shepherding others into Christ.

The effect of the entire Gospel story is one of multiplying miracles. Leave off the wrath and you only have a smarmy story of an invisible God who loves us for some reason. Don’t leave off the reason.

Merry Christmas.

Posted in earthquakes, judgment, prophecy

Major earthquakes since the election: God is shaking the nations

Posted on by elizabethprata

UPDATE: I posted an update to this essay here, updating the total of major earthquakes since the election.

Not that the US election is a global prophetic barometer, in fact, Israel is the only nation where we can confidently say that, but the US is one indicator of the depths of perversity and depravity that a nation of 300 million souls has sunk to. In addition, the major prophetic focal point, Israel, is being hit with rockets in the south, and attacked from the north… So, let’s look at how the Lord is shaking the nations. Just sayin’–

Nov 7- 7.4 OFFSHORE GUATEMALA
Nov 8- 6.3 VANCOUVER ISLAND, CANADA REGION
Nov 11-6.8 MYANMAR
Nov 11-6.5 OFFSHORE GUATEMALA

There have been 18 aftershock quakes at Guatemala in the last 6 days above 4.3 in addition to the two major quakes.

There have been 6 large quakes at Myanmar today, formerly Burma, including the major 6.8.
5.6 / 5.8. / 5.0 / 5.6/  5.0 / 6.8

There was the strong (for the region) 4.3 quake at Kentucky followed by a 2.5 (New Madrid?).

The USGS has annual averages for each sized magnitude of quake.

As far as previous years go, we note that as of year end 2011, it was the third consecutive year that quakes in each of the categories from magnitude 5.0 to 9.0 have exceeded annual averages. Statistically there is no doubt there are more earthquakes.

Let’s get a thumbnail of how 21012 is stacking up– I usually do a year-end statistical analysis of how many quakes there have been in each year and compare that to the previous nine years against the USGS annual benchmark. It isn’t the end of the year yet, so it wouldn’t be statistically reliable to do an apples to apples comparison until Dec 31, but here is a roundup of how many large quakes there have been so far with 6 weeks to go in the year 2012.

8.0-9.9 : 2
7.0-7.9 : 12
6.0-6.9 : 102
5.0-5.9 : 1336

The USGS search didn’t have in its database the three 6.0-plus quakes that have happened in the last few days, so I added those in. Anyone have an idea that the two categories that haven’t met or exceeded the USGS annual average will be making up for lost time in the next few weeks? I do, if the last few days are any indication.

The writer of Hebrews said,

“At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”” (Hebrews 12:26).

This verse is referring back to Haggai 2:6, and Barnes Notes explains, “The words here quoted are taken from Haggai 2:6, where they refer to the changes which would take place under the Messiah. The meaning is, that there would be great revolutions in his coming, as if the universe were shaken to its center. The apostle evidently applies this passage as it is done in Haggai, to the first advent of the Redeemer.”

Both the first advent of Jesus and the second advent of Jesus will shake the nations. However, the second advent will shake the heavens too.

The shaking of the earth here evidently refers to the commotions among the nations that would prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.
Listen, people. God is going to come in terrifying judgment. Revelation 6:13 says when the sixth seal is opened, a great shaking will occur in the universe- “and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.”

Matthew 24:29 is a parallel, “Immediately after the distress of those days “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”

The earthquakes are the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy where Jesus said “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” (Matthew 24:7.)

The earthquakes are the warning sign. of the shaking judgment to come. This judgment has been given to JESUS.

“The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,” (John 5:22)

If you believe on Jesus’ name, you will be His friend and not His enemy to be judged. Here is how to be saved from that judgment!

 God’s Simple Plan of Salvation

Posted in end time, judgment, prophecy, revelation

Why is there silence in heaven for half an hour?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is some news that caught my eye. Prophetic mention after each news excerpt and a prophetic discussion below.

Raccoons taking over, hissing at New Yorkers
“A turf battle of sorts is taking place in some neighborhoods. Raccoons are invading. They’re getting into garbage cans, backyards and even breaking into homes. And what’s more, these resourceful raccoons are outsmarting the most determined of trappers, CBS 2’s Dave Carlin reported. Clinton Hill, Brooklyn resident Susan DeBrango snapped pictures of the suspects, their faces masked, trying to get inside her home. “They are adorable but not in your backyard when they impact your life,” DeBrango said. “When he saw at me he stood up on two legs and hissed at me.” They are getting more brazen on Washington Avenue, rummaging through trash, and running right up to neighbors. One even went face-to-face with Barbara Mattocks on her own front stoop. “I don’t want that feeling ever again. I was petrified,” Mattocks said. It’s gotten so bad, one 3-year-old Maltese named ‘Snowball,’ who used to love to play outside, is now a prisoner in his own home, according to his owner. “He refuses to go out in the yard,” Mattocks said.

One of the coming judgments will be the plague of animals. When the Pale Horse of death is unleashed, authority is given to “kill [a fourth of the earth] with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.” (Rev 6:6-8). A quarter of the earth will die from 4 methods and one of them will be by animal. [shudder]

Scientist predicts major earthquake in Middle East The Middle East may not possess the same reputation for seismic disasters as some other parts of the world, but that is of little comfort to the people of north-west Iran, over 300 of whom were killed when a twin earthquake struck the country’s mountainous region earlier this year. Destroying villages and injuring many thousands, the two six-plus magnitude quakes – striking the same location north-east of the city of Tabriz and spaced just 11 minutes apart – were among the worst to hit Iran since 2003, when an earthquake killed 25,000 people in the city of Bam. … We fear that a major earthquake in the Holy Land is imminent,” says Marco, whose research led him to conclude that following four major earthquakes in the region some 300 to 400 years apart in roughly the first millennium, the last 1,000 years of quiescence are a matter of grave concern for all in the Holy Land.”

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” (Matthew 24:7).

God has always used earthquakes to warn, to judge, to demonstrate His power. It will be the same, but even more so, in the Tribulation.

Universe Today: Curiosity Finds…SOMETHING…on Martian Surface

“While scooping its first samples of Martian soil, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured the image above, which shows what seems to be a small, seemingly metallic sliver or chip of… something… resting on the ground. Is it a piece of the rover? Or some other discarded fleck of the MSL descent mechanisms? Or perhaps an exotic Martian pebble of some sort? Nobody knows for sure yet, but needless to say the soil samples have taken a back seat to this new finding for the time being.”

Large asteroid to pass by earth Friday Morning “An asteroid the size of a 7-to-10 story office building is expected to slide past the Earth early Friday at an altitude of 35,000 miles from the surface. The asteroid, designated 2012 TC4, was discovered less than a week ago by scientists. Experts said they do not expect any adverse effects from the asteroid. According to NASA, the 20-to-30 meter wide asteroid will pass Earth at 20 percent of the distance from the Earth to the moon, or 0.2 LD.”

Just discovered a week ago?!?! Passing by with a few miles? Oy.

The bible says “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26).

Personally I think the thing on Mars is a chip or a flake from Curiosity flying off in the descent. It is a stretch to say that the news of ‘something’ on Mars is a sign, because it isn’t, but it certainly does add to the sense of foreboding, and enhances the public’s proclivity to see aliens around every corner and conspiracy theories behind every water cooler. Especially when asteroids pop up out of nowhere. The truth is, society IS perplexed and in a state of foreboding, so news like this will only rattle the cages and pound the hearts all the more.

You know that war between Syria and Turkey is one mortar away, don’t you? Turkey has the 2nd largest army in NATO, after the US. Turks and Syrians have been exchanging shelling for over a week, Turkey is still burning due to Syria shooting down the Turkish war plane earlier this summer, and troops on both sides are mobilizing at the border. Syria’s Assad is thinking of making a national call-up to all soldiers. If they go to war, NATO will get involved. If NATO gets involved, the US will too. We’re part of NATO.

Turkish president says “worst case” unfolding in Syria “Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Monday the “worst-case scenarios” were now playing out in Syria and Turkey would do everything necessary to protect itself, as its army fired back for a sixth day after a shell from Syria flew over the border. Gul said the violence in Turkey’s southern neighbor, where a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad has evolved into a civil war that threatens to draw in regional powers, could not go on indefinitely and Assad’s fall was inevitable. “The worst-case scenarios are taking place right now in Syria … Our government is in constant consultation with the Turkish military. Whatever is needed is being done immediately as you see, and it will continue to be done,” Gul said.”

The bible says, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.” (Matthew 24:6) “And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.” (Revelation 6:4).

These are signs of the end, in one way or another. But people who mock and scoff say, ‘Wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes have always happened! And the raccoons are probably either rabid or sick! And so what there’s a metal flake was on Mars, that has nothing to do with anything!”

This kind of denial is rampant. It is also easy to deny because the quakes and animals and wars, though more intense and frequent, are “normal.” Even the catastrophes in Revelation 6 during the Tribulation are “normal” insofar as the society of those that dwell on the earth will explain them away just as people are attempting to do now. Bah, they will say, Wars and quakes and storms and disease are part of life on earth. But then Revelation 8 happens…

“When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.” (Revelation 8:1-5).

Why the silence? And what does that have to do with hissing raccoons, earthquakes, and Turkish war drums? Learn the Bible says, “There is a distinction between the seven seals [of Revelation 6] and the seven trumpets that indicates a shift in God’s dealings with man in the midst of the tribulation period. The seven seals bring judgment through either manmade or seemingly natural events. They are the judgment of God, but could be dismissed as natural events. The seven trumpets, on the other hand, are clearly supernatural in cause. They are clearly the pouring out of God’s wrath upon the earth. Revelation 8 describes a pause in heaven before this shift in judgment occurs.”

The essay at LTB goes on to describe more on why there is silence and what it has to do with worship. It is a good article, and sobering.

Do not wait for those times to repent. Repent now. Believe on the name of Jesus and the sacrifice for sins and which was accepted by God. God was pleased to crush His Son: “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.’ (Isaiah 53:10).

The name of Jesus is the only name by which ye may be saved. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

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 God, hell, judgment, paul washer, sin, wrath

God’s holiness and His wrath

Posted on by elizabethprata

“And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3).

Holiness is a quality of perfection, sinlessness, and inability to sin that is possessed by God alone. As Christians we are called to be holy (1 Pet. 1:16). But this does not refer to our nature. Instead, it is a command of our practice and thought. We are to be holy in obedience (1 Pet. 1:15). God has made us holy through his Son Jesus (Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 2:9). (source)

Our LORD is holy. We so often focus these days on His friendship with us, His provision to us, His loving-kindness … that we could always use a refresher on His holiness, I think.

“so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God. (2 Chronicles 5:14)

“Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” (Exodus 40:35)

Our LORD is holy! How wonderful it must have been to be so overcome with His holiness that they could not even stand!

The flip side of His holiness is His wrath. He is angry over sin. On the day of His wrath, which is His anger over sin released, no one will be able to stand, either. His holy fury will overtake the sinful world.

They were “calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:16-27).

His sinless perfection is offended at putrid sin. The following is a 6-minute sermon jam from Paul Washer on the Wrath of God. Remember, the flip side to His holiness is wrath over sin.

Wrath
“Biblically, wrath is the divine judgment upon sin and sinners. It does not merely mean that it is a casual response by God to ungodliness, but carries the meaning of hatred, revulsion, and indignation. God is by nature love (1 John 4:16), however, in His justice He must punish sin. The punishment is called the wrath of God. It will occur on the final Day of Judgment when those who are unsaved will incur the wrath of God. It is, though, presently being released upon the ungodly (Rom. 1:18-32) in the hardening of their hearts.”

“Wrath is described as God’s anger (Num. 32:10-13), as stored up (Rom. 2:5-8), and as great (Zech. 7:12). The believer’s deliverance from God’s wrath is through the atonement (Rom. 5:8-10). “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Thess. 5:9).” (source)

Praise Lord Jesus that He will accept you if you repent, and you shall be cleansed and redeemed to His bosom. No wrath will be upon you. GO HERE if you want to learn how to be saved from the wrath of God.

Posted in bible, jesus, judgment, rob bell, satan

Back to Basics: Who is Satan?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Satan is real.

He was God’s covering cherub, the highest of the high, and the most beautiful. (Ezekiel 28:14-17). This means he is an angel and therefore a created being under God’s sovereignty. The eternal clash between good and evil is not one of equal opposites, but one of rebellion of a created being against an uncreated, holy God. (Isaiah 14:13-14)

We hear satan’s actual voice three times in the bible. Once in Genesis 3:1-5 when he is talking with Eve in the Garden of Eden. There, he insinuated to Eve that God is not good enough to her by not letting her have all the fruit of the Garden. The second time we hear him speak, it’s in heaven to God about Job. (Job 1:7-11). There, he told God that God was being too good to Job. The third time is when satan tempts Jesus. (Luke 4:1-12). In that scene, he used several the schemes in his arsenal (temptation of the body, temptation of power, temptation of testing God) and when he failed, he went away until another opportune time. (Luke 4:13).

These scenes tell us that satan has many schemes in his bag of tricks, he is not hesitant to use them against people, or Jesus or even GOD, and that he never quits.

Satan is mentioned in the Gospels twenty-nine times. And twenty-five of those times, Jesus is the one talking about Satan. Satan is mentioned in seven Old Testament books and every New Testament book.

Satan is a real person. He is not allegory, a metaphor or a figment. If you believe he is an allegory or figment or just an evil force, then you destroy the integrity and truthfulness of every NT book, each Gospel, a quarter of the Old Testament, and the character of Jesus. It is not possible to disbelieve satan is real but also believe the rest of the bible is truthful, historical, prophetic, and the word of God.

Satan is not in hell. He is not the ruler of hell. So where is he? He is roaming up and down upon the earth. (Job 1:7, Job 2:2; 1 Peter 5:8). Satan is the prince of the air. (Ephesians 2:2). Satan is in heaven accusing the brethren. (Revelation 12:10; Job 1:6). God has granted limited and temporary sovereignty to satan, for he is the god of this world. (2 Corinthians 4:4). From this we see that satan has been granted much latitude by God on earth, the air and in heaven.

Satan is busy! He is accusing the brethren, roaming the earth, fighting the holy angels, sowing tares among the wheat, polluting the doctrine. He is wreaking devastation and destruction. (John 10:10). And much more!

What is satan’s destiny? When satan rebelled in the primordial past, God prepared hell for satan and his angels. (Matthew 25:41). There will be no offer to repent and no opportunity to come to salvation. The devil and his angels’ futures are fixed. (John 16:11). Meanwhile, God uses their evil for His good and glory.

During the time since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden, satan has been allowed latitude in each of the three spheres of earth, air and heaven. However, midway through the Tribulation, he will be thrown out of heaven and access will no longer be granted to him or his angels. Perhaps satan thought he would be able to go on like this forever. God’s patience is longsuffering, but it does have an end, and satan gets tossed. He and his angels will be furious and will wreak that fury on the population of the earth. Woe to them! (Revelation 12:7-17).

At the conclusion of the Tribulation, satan will be thrown into the abyss and locked up for 1000 years. When 1000 years is over, he will be let out for a little while to foment one last, short, rebellion. (Revelation 20:3; 8). After that time he will be thrown into the lake of fire, the place prepared for him in the primordial past. His angels will be thrown there too, (Revelation 20:10) along with every person who followed him. (Revelation 20:15).

To all the precious brethren, fighting and strong or struggling and weak: he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. We need not fear satan, but we do need to appreciate his capabilities and thus rely on the Holy Spirit more than ever. And to the lost: make no mistake, satan is real.

Rob Bell casts aspersions on the Holy Word. In his infamous book, “Love Wins“, Bell wrote about hell and by definition, satan,

“‘A staggering number of people have been taught that a few select Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.’ “

Oh, woe to those who disbelieve Jesus’s words about future judgment for sin and His word to John in Revelation about the Book of Life. If your name is not written in it, you will be thrown into the Lake of Fire to be tormented forever.

Mr Bell believes love wins: and he is right, it does. Look at the cross! God’s love of humanity- expressed through Jesus-  triumphed over evil and sin and death! (Colossians 2:13-15). However, Mr Bell believes love and holiness are mutually exclusive. They are not. Holiness wins too. (John 9:39). All one needs to do is look at the lake of fire- the place prepared for the devil and his angels, and all those who follow satan. (Matthew 12:30-32). Unless you believe in Jesus, you are actually following satan by default. When you die, you will follow satan right into the Lake of Fire.

Now for some encouragement to the brethren:

“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” (John 12:31).

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Thanks be to God for Jesus!

Those are a few facts about satan. As always, read the word for yourselves to see if these things are true.

Posted in brimstone, judgment, sulfur

Salton Sea plagued by rotten eggs sulfur smell

Posted on by elizabethprata
Abandoned, salt-encrusted structures
on the Salton Sea shore at Bombay Beach. Wiki photo

The Salton Sea is a weird place. I think I have written about it before. I visited there when my husband and I were traveling across country in our VW van. It is strange, creepy and spooky. The place is definitely an anomaly.

Interestingly, it was the one place we felt the most unsafe. We had camped in remote areas many times. We camped at the Mexican border, we camped in cities such as Miami and New Orleans. At the Salton Sea, we felt acutely uncomfortable, and the feeling worsened as night fell. We tossed and turned and remained in a fitful state until finally at 3AM my husband said, “Are you awake?” I said “Yes.” He asked me if I felt creepy. What we were actually feeling was frightened, a supernatural kind of fear when the hairs on the back of your neck raise up and your heart is pounding a little. We decided to close up shop and race outta there. We made LA by dawn.

I read in the news last night of a terrible rotten-egg smell that has been wafting from the Salton Sea all the way to LA. Initially, Los Angelenos did not know it came from the US’s largest inland sea, because it is so far away from LA- about 150-195 miles.

“A strong Rotten Egg Smell had Southern Californians plugging their noses and crying foul Monday as air quality investigators scrambled to determine if the sulfurous scent was coming from the Salton Sea.”

Today they have made that confirmation.

Rotten egg smell traced to California’s Salton Sea
“After a day of “odor surveillance” and other scent-based sleuthing, Southern California air quality investigators confirmed Tuesday what they had already expected — that a pungent, rotten-egg aroma that stretched across the region came from the Salton Sea. Investigators from the South Coast Air Quality Management District collected air samples, modeled weather patterns and measured hydrogen sulfide levels to determine that Monday’s stench came from the saltwater lake 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles, as strong winds from a storm churned the water and stirred up foul-smelling gasses from the lake bottom, where they normally are trapped.”

They don’t know why the smell escaped the lake bottom. The scientists said the “likely” cause was a fish-die-off. LOL, there’s that word “likely” again, which I read more and more often when scientists are quoted in attempting to explain the inexplicable.

The smell issue was unusual. The LA Times reports, “We now have solid evidence that clearly points to the Salton Sea as the source of a very large and unusual odor event,” said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. How unusual? As late as Monday night, AQMD officials weren’t even sure it was scientifically possible for a malodorous scent to trek the distance the Salton Sea’s fumes did. So they asked an air quality modeler to use sophisticated computer modeling to find out if it was “theoretically possible” for a stench to fly that far. “I think we’ve shown it was theoretically possible,” said Sam Atwood, an AQMD spokesman. “But this is just something we did not expect.”

“Atwood said AQMD inspectors collected air samples that contained hydrogen sulfide.”

Hydrogen sulfide is part of the sulfur cycle. Sulfur is also known as brimstone.

Wikipedia explains: “sulfur (Latin sulphur) was known in ancient times and is referred to in the Torah (Genesis). English translations of the Bible commonly referred to burning sulfur as “brimstone”, giving rise to the name of ‘fire-and-brimstone’ sermons, in which listeners are reminded of the fate of eternal damnation that await the unbelieving and unrepentant. It is from this part of the Bible that Hell is implied to “smell of sulfur”.

So the weirdest and demonically spookiest place on earth I’ve ever visited smelled of brimstone so bad that it wafted almost 200 miles, and still smelling strongly, plagued the residents of the city where Hollywood is.

Hmmm.

There IS evidence of geothermal activity that’s also visible. There are mudpots and mud volcanoes on the eastern side of the Salton Sea. Right, mudpots at Salton.

Today the Ukrainian city of Lviv was in the news. Residents there are complaining of a rotten egg smell. It is really pungent, apparently. “The smell has gotten so bad that many residents have begun wearing face masks and keeping children and asthma-sufferers indoors when the odor grows particularly ripe’.

Residents in Point Place in Ohio reported a month ago about a rotten eggs smell. “For over a year, District 6 City Councilman Lindsay Webb said, she’s been getting regular calls, emails, and social media messages from constituents concerned about a smell emanating from the direction of the city’s Hoffman Road Landfill, which is just northwest of Point Place. Most of those people, including Ms. Webb, believe the landfill is responsible for what’s been described as a stench of garbage or rotten eggs.”

In Revelation 9:2 we read that hell will literally be on earth. “He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft”.

The verse doesn’t say anything about a smell but I am sure that a sulfurous smell will accompany the demons’ release along with all that smoke.

God’s signature use of hail, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, and “brimstone” (sulfur) are well-known throughout history.

The KJV of the Bible offers many examples of the phrase “fire and brimstone.” Brimstone is sulfur (British spelling, sulphur). In Genesis 19, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah for their immoral homosexuality via a rain of fire and brimstone. In Deuteronomy 29, the Israelites were threatened with the same punishment if they abandoned their covenant with God. Divine judgments involving fire and sulphur are prophesied against Assyria (Isaiah 30), Edom (Isaiah 34), Gog (Ezekiel 38), and all the wicked (Psalm 11). The ultimate book of wrath, Revelation, shows God using the punishment with fire and brimstone throughout. Here is one example…

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10, KJV)

In Ezekiel 38:22-23 the Gog-Magog war, God saves Israel by raining down brimstone. “With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him, and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur. 23So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Interestingly, in Isaiah 30:33, the breath of God is compared to brimstone: “The Breath of Jehovah, like a stream of Brimstone, doth kindle it.”

“Brimstone,” used to be the common name for sulfur. The word when used today is almost exclusively in allusions to God’s fiery wrath. Sulfur is Brimstone. When the people of SoCal smell that distinctive “rotten egg” smell, it is sulfur, or brimstone. Brimstone is the language of God.

Are we listening?

Posted in judgment, revelation, woe

When heaven becomes silent

Posted on by elizabethprata

Heaven is full of holy noise. There are songs, and harps, and mighty choruses, angels shouting, peals and thunders, and praises so loud the temple pillars shake.

“Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: “Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?”” (Revelation 5:1-2).

“Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus:” (Revelation 5:11-12).

“And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.” (Isaiah 6:3-4).

“And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army.” (Ezekiel 1:24).

It must be amazing! None of the noise will cacophonous, but will be perfect.

Which is why, in Revelation 8, the silence is so devastating. When Jesus breaks the 7th seal…well you read it:

“When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” (Revelation 8:1)

There are many conflicting interpretations as to what this means. The time period, “half an hour” is from a Greek word correctly translated half an hour, but it is the only use in the entire New Testament. In any case, it seems that the time of silence will be short, but powerful. If it is enough to stop the praises and choruses and noises otherwise heard in heaven, it must be a powerful silence!

Why the silence? Again, many interpretations. Yet they all agree that the silence is to honor the moment, acknowledging the suspense of what is coming, that the judgments are so severe, and the holiness and righteousness of Jesus to render them. If you read Revelation 8, and it is short chapter, what comes next are angels sounding the trumpets, fulfilling Jesus’s judgments. A third of the grass is struck, a third of the seas are struck, and a third of the rivers are struck. Then there is an angel shouting–

“Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!” (Revelation 8:13)

And those trumpets release the demon-locusts and then the most evil angels who’d been bound at the River Euphrates prepared for this very day and hour, to kill a third of mankind.

Woe indeed!

Some commenters say that heaven’s population becomes silent at the suspense only because they do not know what is about to happen. But the church is there, and the Tribulation martyrs of Revelation 5 are there and we’ve read the bible so we know the judgments.

I’ll throw out another possibility, my own opinion. Judgments are falling, due to sin. In the Seal judgments of Revelation 6, the chapter ends with the the 6th seal being opened, and the population of earth shouting that it is ‘the wrath of the Lamb, and who can stand, the great day has come.’ (Revelation 6:16-17 paraphrase). So they know by now that these are not just coincidental events, like the people claim today. They know it is not Mother Nature, or Global Warming, but that it is the Day of Judgment and wrath from God. The difference between the Seal Judgments and the Trumpet judgments, is that by the 6th Seal they KNOW it is God and nothing else.

In Revelation 7 the scene shifts away from judgment. In the first half of Revelation 7 we are told that 144,000 are sealed, and they go forth proclaiming Jesus to the world. In the second half of Revelation 7, the martyrs are in heaven and singing. By the end of Revelation 7 the seventh seal has not been opened yet.

Revelation 8 begins with that last seal opened and that is when there is silence. The difference between the Seal Judgments past and the Trumpet Judgments about to come is that by now the people who dwell on the earth know it is judgment time from God. They know.

Revelation 8 ends with four of the seven trumpets having been blown, and the angel shouting woe because the next three are about to be blown and the three judgments accompanying them are terrible.

So the heavenly population is stunned into silence for the reasons mentioned above: suspense and awe at the severity of what is to come. But I also think it is a holy fear. The remaining trumpets are blown and the horrors of hell on earth are indescribable….

…And yet they do not repent.

THAT is what I think stuns them into silence.

“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” (Revelation 9:20-21).

The earth’s people know it is Jesus judging them, and yet they do not repent. They continue sinning!!

I’m stunned on earth now at those who do not repent, and I can’t imagine how I would feel standing in the presence of Holy Jesus and knowing the earth’s people do not repent even when woes are piled on them and they know it is Jesus. I’d be stunned into silence at the situation. Anyway it is just my own thought. But the silence in heaven at that moment, for whatever reason it happens, is monumental to contemplate especially when compared to the previous verses we are blessed to read of the heavenly noise!

The movie starring Richard Harris, The Apocalypse of John, has in this excerpt toward the end of the 4 minutes, the scene when Jesus breaks open the seal and heaven is silent. No exultation, no praise, no thunder, no harps, no hallelujahs. Just silence and awe.

Posted in judgment, revelation

God’s Four Sore Judgments #4: Beasts

Posted on by elizabethprata

Introduction
God’s Four Sore Judgments #1: Sword
God’s Four Sore Judgments #2: Famine
God’s Four Sore Judgments #3: Pestilence

The other day I introduced a series examining the LORD’S “Four Sore Judgments.” (Links just above). In other translations they are called the “LORD’S Four Severe Judgments.” They’re mentioned in Ezekiel 14:21: “For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!”

The four are Sword, Famine, Pestilence, and Beasts. Wesley’s notes says, “How much more – If they could not be able to keep off one of the four, how much less would they be able to keep off all four, when I commission them all to go at once.”

It is a very dread situation when all four are unleashed. If you read Revelation 6, you will see that the four are unleashed all at once, or in very rapid succession. Jesus called it the worst time on earth there ever has been or ever will be. (Matthew 24:21; also Rev 6).

We looked at the correlation between Sword (war), famine, and disease. Now we will take a look at the biblical judgment of Beasts.

Vision of Death, Gustave Dore, 1865

“When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:7-8)

The Greek word for “beasts” is just that, the generic term always used for ‘wild animal.’ I’ve written about Death by Beasts before, here.

While we have always had war, famines and epidemic diseases, death by beasts is more unusual. Let’s look at man’s relationship to beasts since the beginning, through the flood to afterwards up through the Tribulation and ending at the Millennium.

When Adam was created, one of the jobs God gave him to do is name all the beasts of the earth. (Genesis 2:19-20). At that time before the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, the beasts were friendly and herbivorous. (Genesis 1:29-30). Man was still sovereign over them, but it was not a bloody relationship.

After the fall, they became meat for humans. The Flood came. After the flood waters receded, the relationship between man and beasts changed once again. God put the fear and dread of man into them. (Genesis 9:2).

In the Millennium kingdom, He will reverse that curse and all will be reverted back to the original state of peaceful co-existence. Children can put their hand into a snake’s hole and not be bitten. The wolf will lay down with lamb, and the lion shall be tame. (Isaiah 11:6-9).

 Elisha and the boys in Bethel,
Matthaeus Merian the Elder, 1625

But before that, between the receded Flood waters and the peace of the Millennium, it seems that there will come another change of the relationship between man and beast, though this once is more implicit rather than stated. It will occur in the Tribulation. It seems that in the Tribulation, the Lord will (perhaps) have removed the fear and dread of man from the wild animals. I can’t point to a specific scripture that tells this explicitly, but implicitly I gather than the progression of man’s relationship with beasts changes from a contentious one as it is now, but with their fear removed. If a quarter of the world dies by the aforementioned plagues and one of them is beasts, it seems that there will be a lot of hunting going on- and not just man upon beast, but beast upon man.

Today, if a beast does become a “man-killer” it has to be killed. God said in Genesis 9:5 that even from the beasts he will require capital punishment. In Exodus 21:28 we read that if an ox gores a man the animal is to be killed and its flesh not eaten. But if the animal is previously in the habit of goring and the owner is warned, and the animals kills a man or woman, then the animal AND the owner are to be killed. (Exodus 21:29)

Did you ever wonder why the animals that could do us the most harm don’t simply hunt us down and eat us, like, all the time? But they don’t. When I was in Big Bend National Park in SW Texas, hiking in the Chisos Mountains, Rangers told us if we come upon a mountain lion to stand tall, and throw stones at it. The lion would leave us alone. LOL, I’m glad we never had to test that, but the methodology is that the lion would see you as a bigger threat and leave.

Even today if a wild animal kills a man, the Rangers, or zookeepers, or whoever, usually kills that animal. In most cases the Ranger is not responding explicitly to God’s instructions laid down in Exodus 21, but they instinctively are. If an animals kills a person, it means they have lost the fear and dread and is all the more dangerous to humans.

In the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend a couple of months ago, the Austin newspaper reported, there had been a mountain lion attack. The people chased it off by throwing a backpack at it. However, the report made this particular family who camped there the day after the attack hyper-aware. They decided to stay in the lodge instead of the tent, and when they went to the restaurant for dinner from the lodge room, they held their child’s hand, one parent on either side. They walked on the lit walkway between the two populated buildings. However, the lion attacked the boy anyway, dragging him away from his parents to a nearby bush. The parents then attacked the lion! The boy is chewed up a little, but he is OK. Rangers said it was highly unusual for a mountain lion to attack on the pavement between populated buildings. If the animal was caught, they said, it would be killed. Above, me in the Chisos Mountains 17 years ago.

War brings famine to animals, too. Their natural habitats are disrupted, and food gets hard to find. The stress often leaves them no choice but to start looking at humans as food, and attacks increase. That would seem to be a normal outcome of the other sore judgment: famine.

John MacArthur preached on the Revelation 6:7-8 verse here. He preached in part-

“…The most deadly creature on the face of the earth? Not a snake, not a lion, not an alligator. A rat. Historically the deadliest creature on the face of the earth. Why? Rats are annually responsible for the loss of billions of dollars of food in America alone and death all over the world. Rats infested with Bubonic Plague killed one third of the population of Europe in the fourteenth century, that’s Encyclopedia Americana’s own figure. Rats can carry as many as thirty-five diseases at once and amazingly if ninety-five percent of the rat population is exterminated in the given area, it will replace itself in less than a year. It has killed more people than all the wars of history and it always makes its home where men dwell.”

Death by rats is certainly a likely possibility. More than likely, given the history cited above which bears this out.

Remember “Snowpocalypse” of winter 2011? Cities all along the US Eastern seaboard were inundated with snow. Mountains of it fell, stilling whole cities like NY for days. As a result of the paralysis, garbage piled up. People still generated trash, but the streets were too clogged for garbage trucks to make their way on their routes. And the landfills and parking lots of the garbage scows were too full of snow to unload the garbage anyway, even if it was picked up.

The following article reports on that situation in February 2011: “A suicidal man plummeted nine stories and survived in midtown Sunday when he landed on a mountain of trash that had piled up since last week’s blizzard, officials said.”

Look how much garbage there is left over from a week later…

Trash did pile up to shoulder heights. On January 6, 2011, Letterman on The Late Show was more graphic about the rat situation:

“New York’s just beginning to dig out of the garbage backlog from the Dec. 27 snowstorm. Two kids, all bundled up, are building a garbage man outside. I hope they’ve had all their vaccinations! And with so much garbage, the rats are crazy. And I don’t want to alarm you, but honest to God, we’re knee deep in rats now with the garbage. Fortunately the city has hired an additional cat.”

You can imagine the rats bringing a killing disease after the catastrophic events of Revelation 6 that are prophesied to occur before the Fourth Seal is opened. So, death by beasts could be the plagues that rats bring.

But I think it is more that that.

I’ve been noticing over the last two years particularly that wild animals have been acting strangely.

Shark attacks are up. This summer Myrtle Beach SC has struggled with an unusual number of shark bites upon people who were not far offshore at all. There was a spate of weird fox attacks in Britain a while back. Foxes entered homes to attack babies. In April 2012, a ferret jumped into a baby’s stroller and attacked her, the Daily Mail reports. It it took two firefighters 25 minutes to fight it off! Reports of a monkey stealing a baby from the living room. There is no fear of humans inside an animal when it boldly enters a dwelling where humans are present!

Moreover, these are not isolated incidents. Incidents like these are occurring every day in a number of animals, in highly populated areas. Remember the fisher sightings spike in Boston? The bear that entered a well-populated, campfire-lit campground and dragged a girl by her head? The mountain lion stalking and prowling at the Denver bus terminal? The 40-ton whale that leaped onto a passing yacht, snapping its mast? All within the last couple of years and all stated to be unusual for that local area. Just today, NY Daily News reports that black widow spiders are invading NY. The exterminators say Black Widows in NY are rare.

As with any sign or symptom of the culture, ONE event does not mean Tribulation is imminent. But I detect a pattern. Animal attacks are up. Second, the attacks were unusual (no rabies, populated areas, never before happened in that location, the time of day, etc). I mean, we can rule out the rabies-incited attacks, and all attacks that were warranted (like the guy who climbed into spider monkey enclosure to play with them and got mauled). Last, the attacks perplex the scientists. Usually the scientists will say that habitat stresses cause the animal to behave in unusual ways, which is certainly true.

So when you have a pattern of non-rabies attacks occurring inside homes where humans dwell, brazen attacks that happen out of the blue with no provocation, happening increasingly over several years, not anomalies, then I think it is safe to say that perhaps God is lifting His hand and the fear and dread of man in the animals is decreasing.

Back to the four sore judgments. Yes, each one is bad enough, but how bad will it be when all four are unleashed at once? Terrible! Fortunately in His mercy, He made a way for His beloved sheep to escape all these things. SALVATION in the Church Age, AKA Age of Grace. Judgments in the Tribulation will be delivered “to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity…” as Daniel hears in his vision in chapter 9, verse 24. He learns why the LORD will send the Tribulation judgments: to finish allowing sin to complete itself.

We are sinners, whose rightful place is hell after death, to be punished for our sin-crimes against God. If we ask the Lord to forgive those sins before our death, understanding Him as Lord and Savior, who came to earth to live the sinless life so He could be the perfect atonement, slain for our iniquities, and was accepted by God of that sacrifice and brought out of death to eternal life, then we will not be in the Tribulation when the whole earth will be judged for their sins. Our sins will have been pardoned, so He will sweep us up to heaven in our glorified bodies and allow us to be in His presence forever!!!

Do not put off your repentance. Intending to repent still means you are still as much an enemy of God as the fist-shaking atheist. Alternately, believe this:

How much better will it be when He calls His sheep home to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in perfect New Jerusalem by the living waters and the street of gold?!! Don’t you want to be there, your sins pardoned and forgotten? Putting off repenting means you choose the Four Sore Judgments. How? If you are not for Him, you are against Him. (Matthew 12:30). Personally, I have found a multitude of peace and blessings in living FOR Him. I hope you will think about it. But not for too long… OK?

Posted in aleppo, damascus, judgment, point of no return

Update on Syria: more on bio-weaponry, and why Aleppo is important

Posted on by elizabethprata

Watchmen have been keeping their eyes peeled in watching the events unfold in Syria this last year. The uprising by insurgents/rebels has been going on since at least April 2011 and is getting more violent every day. They are trying to topple “President” Bashar al Assad, who has been in rule there since his father died in 2000. [I put “president” in scare quotes because Assad ran unopposed both times]. His father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for 29 years until his death in 2000. (Left, President Assad, Wiki commons photo)

In the last few weeks the rebels have pitched their battles more pointedly and more violently. Largely over the last year, Damascenes have felt safe from the fighting that until then had been contained in the outlying governates. But last week the rebels brought the battle straight to the residential areas of the city, to the courthouses and interior halls of power. The rebels call this latest push against the regime, “Operation Damascus Volcano.”

The reality of violence in Syria – car bombing in Damascus. Photo by AP
photo published in Israeli Daily, Haaretz

Now the battle is in Damascus too. Just last week in Damascus, three members of Assad’s inner circle were killed, tanks rolled, rockets flared, refugees fled, and the rebels gained unprecedented ground. Turkey closed its border to Syria (to commerce, not refugees). Jordan tightened its border with Syria. Israel expects trouble with Syria. Trouble of the chemical kind, that is.

Israelis lining up to get gas masks, source

One of the main concerns as the battle rages in Damascus, not only that it is in unprecedented geographical territory and is taking place in the capital city itself, is that some of Syria’s chemical and bio-weapon labs are located there. Knowing this, Israel’s distribution of gas masks is going through the roof.

I’ve mentioned a remarkable article/interview in the New English Review with Dr. Jill Dekker, conducted in December 2007. I discovered it in 2009. The interview was conducted to gather “answers and professional views on how extensive the Syrian bio-warfare threat is, we turned to Dr. Jill Dekker, a consultant to the NATO Defense Establishment in bio-warfare and counter terrorism. Dr. Dekker is also a member of the board of advisors of the Intelligence Summit.”

I had noted several times over the years from having learned in the New English Review article, that the chemical and bio-weaponry labs in Damascus are sophisticated and that Syrian top level officials have already determined that they will use them as conventional weapons. That is one of the main points Dr Dekker wanted to make. The Syrians know they do not have the money or capability to maintain parity with the West on conventional weapon production, so in 2007 they decided to load bio and chemicals onto the weapons they do have and use them instead, and concentrate on producing viruses and anthrax instead of thousands of missiles. She noted this was an important psychological turning point in the arms race between the West and the terrorist regimes behind Syria (such as Iran and Hezbollah). She said then that the West should be very, very concerned.

Why? “The Syrians work on most Category A pathogens: anthrax, plague, tularemia, botulinium, smallpox, aflotoxin, cholera, ricin, camelpox… Syria has extensive expertise in the industrial cultivation of germs and viruses for the civilian production of anthrax. Their pharmaceutical infrastructure is fully integrated with their defense structure. (Dekker, source). Frighteningly,

 “1 gram of crystalline Botulinium is estimated to kill about a million people if it were evenly dispersed.” Dekker

Since then, with North Korea, Russia and Iran’s help, Syria has diligently worked in their labs in Damascus to produce bio-weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, last week, they stated their willingness to use them if their nation is invaded in any kind of humanitarian attempt to stop the interior carnage.

Here is something interesting: in that New English Review interview, Dr Dekker said, “There have been a number of accidents with their biological weapons programs that have killed civilians in the past in cities like Homs and Aleppo. Some of those programs were ended and it appears that casualties from former bio-programs were related to ventilation problems. This latest accident appears to have occurred while they were mounting a warhead. Syria is known to have a stockpile of chemical weapons and accidents happen. It is interesting to note that Iranian scientists were involved in that activity.”

In July 2010 I wrote “Plague hitting Syrian Army?” where the rumor emerging out of the Middle East was that the Syrian army had been hit by a plague. At that time, “The International Society for Infectious Diseases posted a report on Monday alleging that the Syrian military has been hit by a plague. According to the report, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ordered the military to stop all its exercises until the source of the epidemic could be pinpointed.”

The page I linked to which reported the possible plague has been taken down now. But you can read a bit more here, and here.

For all prophecy watchers, Damascus squarely in prophetic cross-hairs now. Isaiah 17:1 states that Damascus will be a heap of ruins. We know the other prophecies about wars in the Middle East in and around Jerusalem is that there will be many battles and wars (i.e. Psalm 83, Ezekiel 38-39, etc).

As for today’s news, I want to bring attention to something that also relates to the prophtic implications for Isaiah 17:1 in Syria. Dr Dekker said in the New English Review article of the chemical and bio-weaponry labs, “They also have a number of programs running in Aleppo.”

CNN reports this morning
Syrian rebels amass as battles for Aleppo, Damascus intensify

click to enlarge

Why is Aleppo so important to the Syrian rebels? Damascus is the capital, therefore claiming the capital incites an important psychological victory. However, Aleppo is the largest and most populated city in Syria. It is also the commercial center, as stated in this video from CNN explaining the city’s strategic importance. Aleppo was at the end of the Silk Road, is just across the border from Turkey, and note this- 20% of Aleppo’s population is Christian.

With battles raging in Damascus and Aleppo, we know both cities are of strategic military importance to the rebels. The two cities are ALSO home to the two bio and chemical weaponry labs. Now you can understand how the ancient prophetic is playing out before our eyes.

Please pray for the Christians in Aleppo. Pray for the lost. Pray for the times. On that last one, I am conflicted.

I know my brother in Christ Joel C. Rosenberg, a wise and mature man of our faith, has been saying with all biblical fervency to anyone who will listen that we need to pray for a ‘Third Great Awakening’ or else there is nothing that will stop the implosion of America. I agree that we do need one, and I agree that it is important to pray. Nineveh was saved due their their national repentance. However, America is not the only nation that needs an awakening and sometimes I think we Christians tend to get a little biblically insular about the US. Every nation has Christians living in them and they all need prayer. Every nation has the lost living in them, therefore every nation needs fervent prayer to prevent the hand of God moving to crush them in judgment when that lost nation rebels, as all 195 nations are currently doing.

However, I am conflicted because in my heart of hearts, I truly believe we are enduring the Wrath of God’s abandonment and He has given us over. I truly believe we are on the final path away from God and that we have crossed the point of no return.

John MacArthur explains the five kinds of God’s wrath: Eschatological wrath, eternal wrath, cataclysmic wrath, sowing and reaping wrath, and there’s the wrath of abandonment. And this last one is another category of God’s wrath. Separate from the others. The wrath of abandonment follows the progression in Romans 1. That is when an individual is so hardened to the truth, He gives them over to their sin, with no turning back. The same goes for nations. When nations at the ordinance, legal, governmental levels  hardens itself so deeply by becoming the predominant voice of sin in the land, He gives the nation over to their sin.

When does He judge? First He warns, then He disciplines. If repentance is absent or if the nation worsens their actions in spite of His obvious discipline, then at a certain point after long-suffering compassion, He deems their sins “incurable” and He judges. “There is no relief for your breakdown, Your wound is incurable.” (Nahum 3:19)

That’s why I always cringe when I hear people say, “well, after a lifetime of rebellion/atheism/sin, I think he converted on his deathbed. There is a good chance that my grandpa/dad/brother is in heaven.” I’m not so sure. If a person has rejected God’s common grace for a lifetime, and had rejected His reproving, warnings, Gospel, and witnessing for all of a lifetime, there is a greater chance that the person had been given over to their reprobate mind and ended up in hell, than they suddenly saw the light and ended up in heaven. However, various cases exist, so once again, Only God knows. That’s why it is important not to take a chance and keep on rejecting Him, though, whether at the individual or national level.

On March 23, 2010 I asked the question, Has America’s point of no return been reached? I felt back then that perhaps it had. I felt then and I still do that God’s final decision had been reached and the line had been crossed into permanent judgment territory with no going back. I am not saying that there is no more time for individuals to come to the Lord! No! People are being saved every day! But America as a nation? Or Australia? Britain? Iran? China? Mongolia? I think it is too late for most of them. Certainly, I feel that for us here in America.

Of course, I have no inside track, no supernatural view, no prophetic word that makes me feel this. It is my opinion only. I believe it only through what I read in the bible and see happening today. There is every chance I could be wrong. So despite not agreeing with those who say there is still time for the nation to repent and the judgment to be stayed, I agree that prayer is always the answer. Please continue to pray for individuals that you know who are not saved. The Lord is putting them on your heart for a reason. Pray for America, but pray for other nations too. Christians live everywhere. America is nothing special in the eyes of the Lord, any more or less than Tonga or Switzerland. He loves all His people, whatever nation they are in.

So keep praying, keep watching Syria, add Aleppo to the list, and keep looking up!