Category: judgment

Posted in judgment, pestilence, tribulation

God’s Four Sore Judgments- Pestilence

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata*

This is a study of one of the LORD’S ‘Four Sore Judgments’, plague.

The LORD has “Four Sore Judgments” to which He sends at times upon the earth. 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.”

The Lord mentions three judgments together quite frequently, sword, famine, and pestilence. The judgment of beasts isn’t mentioned as much but usually when it is it’s with the other three, thus comprising the Lord’s Four Sore Judgments quartet.

If they fast, I will not hear their cry of despair. If they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. Rather, I will finish them off by sword, famine, and plague. (Jeremiah 14:12).

See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword, famine, and plague, the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. (Jeremiah 32:24).

But I will spare a few of them from the sword, famine, and plague, so that they can tell of all their abominations among the nations to which they go. Then they will know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 12:16).

Three of His judgments are usually enough to perform His will upon the people, as seen here in Ezekiel 6:12,

The one who is far off will die by plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust my wrath on them.

Revelation 6:8 mentions the beasts as the added 4th:

And I looked, and there was a pale green horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following after him. They were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill by the sword, by famine, by plague, and by the wild animals of the earth.

Plague and pestilence are interchangeable terms. In Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (pp. 1280–1281), we read:

PESTILENCE Devastating epidemic that OT writers understood to be sent by God (Exod. 9:15; Jer. 15:2; Hab. 3:5; Amos 4:10), sometimes by means of a destroying angel (2 Sam. 24:16; 1 Chron. 21:15). God sent pestilence as punishment for persistent unbelief (Num. 14:12) and failure to fulfill covenant obligations (Deut. 28:21) as well as to encourage repentance (Amos 4:10). God withheld pestilence from Egypt to allow for survivors to witness to His acts of liberation (Exod. 9:16). Earnest prayer averted pestilence (1 Kings 8:37); fasting and sacrifice without repentance did not (Jer. 14:12). Pestilence is often associated with war and siege conditions (Exod. 5:3; Lev. 26:25; Amos 4:10; Luke 21:11).

And this list of verses:

Plague or Pestilence, The
  Inflicted by God. Eze. 14:19. Hab. 3:5.
  One of God’s four sore judgments. Eze. 14:21.
  Described as noisome. Psa. 91:3.
  Israel threatened with, as a punishment for disobedience. Lev. 26:24, 25. Deu. 28:21.
  Desolating effects of. Psa. 91:7. Jer. 16:6, 7. Amos 6:9, 10.
  Equally fatal day and night. Psa. 91:5, 6.
  Fatal to man and beast. Psa. 78:50. (marg.) Jer. 21:6.

SENT UPON
    The Egyptians. Exo. 12:29–30.
    Israel for making golden calf. Exo. 32:35.
    Israel for despising manna. Num. 11:33.
    Israel for murmuring at destruction of Korah. Num. 16:46–50.
    Israel for worshipping Baal-peor. Num. 25:18.
    David’s subjects for his numbering the people. 2 Sam. 24:15.
  Often broke out suddenly. Psa. 106:29.
  Often followed war and famine. Jer. 27:13. Jer. 28:8. Jer. 29:17, 18.
  Egypt often afflicted with. Jer. 42:17, with Amos 4:10.
  Specially fatal in cities. Lev. 26:25. Jer. 21:6, 9.
  Was attributed to a destroying angel. Exo. 12:23, with 2 Sam. 24:16.
  The Jews sought deliverance from, by prayer. 1 Kin. 8:37, 38. 2 Chr. 20:9.
  Predicted to happen before destruction of Jerusalem. Mat. 24:7. Luke 21:11. 

  ILLUSTRATIVE OF
    God’s judgments upon the apostasy. Rev. 18:4, 8.
    The diseased state of man’s heart. 1 Kin. 8:38.

Source: Torrey, R. A. (1897). The New Topical Text Book: A Scripture Text Book for the Use of Ministers, Teachers, and All Christian Workers

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). A quarter of the world will die when the seal is unsealed and these four sore judgments are commissioned to go all at once:

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).

Sword is war, and war brings famine. Wars and revolutions interrupt supply lines, empty grocery stores, and ruin agricultural land. War makes food scarce, which depletes the body and opens it to more diseases due to compromised immune systems. War brings famine in that way.

The third sore judgment of the four that the LORD had linked in Ezekiel 14 is Pestilence. Pestilence has been present on earth for centuries and is is forecast for the people who dwell on the earth during the Tribulation in the future. (Revelation 6:8, Luke 8:11). According to the Greek word used in Luke 21, loimos, pestilence is a plague or a disease. Diseases are usually considered plagues when they are widespread and contain a high mortality rate. The American Heritage Medical Dictionary defines pestilence as “A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease; a pestilence.”

We see in this article of the outbreak of Influenza as WWI was concluding:

From 1917 to 1920, the virus infected one-third of the Earth’s population, which at the time was about 500 million people. If the same ratio of infections were to happen today, it would be the equivalent of 2.5 billion. That would roughly be the equivalent today of every man, woman, and child in Africa, Europe, and North America becoming infected.

The LORD promises to abolish the four judgments from the land someday,

And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. (Hosea 2:18)

What a day that will be!

I can’t say definitively that the COVID-19 virus is a judgment from the LORD, because I don’t know the Lord’s mind. We see from scriptural history, however, that He does send plagues for various reasons, all of them negative.

He is the Light. He is shining in heaven, and in the faces of each of His sheep. Soon, His light will be seen not by faith but by sight. Praise Him for His love and His wrath, for He is HOLY.

holy holy holy is the Lord verse

——————————————————-

*This essay was first published in July 2012 and was updated on 3/2020.

Posted in apocalypse, death, judgment, sword

God’s 4 sore judgments: #1- Sword

Posted on by elizabethprata

Introduction
Part : Famine
Part 3: Pestilence

Wm Blake, Death on a pale horse, c. 1800

Yesterday I introduced a series examining the LORD’S “Four Sore Judgments.” In other translations they are called the “LORD’S Four Severe Judgments.” They’re mentioned in Ezekiel 14:21. The four are Sword, Famine, Pestilence, and Beasts.

Clarke’s commentary explains, “My four sore judgments – Sword, war. Famine, occasioned by drought. Pestilence, epidemic diseases which sweep off a great part of the inhabitants of a land. The Noisome Beast, the multiplication of wild beasts in consequence of the general destruction of the inhabitants.” 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.

The LORD has unleashed one at a time at frequent intervals throughout the bible, in both the Old Testament (For ex Genesis 41:56) and the New (Acts 11:28). Infrequently, the LORD has unleashed all four at once. One example is bringing Ezekiel’s prophecy of chapter 14 to fruition in around 586BC at Jerusalem’s fall. The next time will be during the Tribulation. (Rev 6).

The Tribulation will be a time when all four are unleashed full strength. (Revelation 14:10). Let’s look at the first of the four severe judgments: Sword.

What is the sword? Laying aside one of the metaphors for the Word, which is the Truth of Jesus, it also means war. Hostility, violence. Jesus stated this would happen as a result of His coming, in Matthew 10:34, where the bible interprets the word for us. It means the opposite of peace:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

That kind of violence is the result of wicked men rebelling against the Gospel. The Sword also means war when God purposely brings war about as a judgment. Sometimes war is the result of the men’s reactions and sometimes it is direct cause by God. Just look at Ezekiel 38, when God plainly states that He will put hooks and in the jaws of Gog and bring him to Israel for war. (Ezekiel 38:4). Also see Romans 13:4, God brings war on the evildoer as judgment. The verse shows us unequivocally that not only does sword mean war, but that He has the authority to use it for His own Good ends.

The Sword judgment is seen in the second Tribulation judgment/second Seal/second Horseman of the Apocalypse. See–

“When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 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.” “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:3-4; 8).

The sword is an symbol of war, of military slaughter, and is used here as signifying that that period would be characterized by carnage. Absolute carnage. How do I know it is absolute? Because not only is the point of the Tribulation to bring sin to the fullness (Daniel 9:24a) but because the Revelation verse says peace will be taken from the earth. Nowhere will there be a cessation of hostilities. Nowhere will be safe.

The Greek word for “great” sword is megas, from which we get Mega. ” large, great, in the widest sense.” I interpret this to mean that war will occur in its fullest, widest, most pervasive, most saturation possible. You really don’t want to be here on earth when the Tribulation Sword is unleashed.  

Jesus said that the time will contain wars and rumors of wars. (Matthew 24:6). Wars that are talked about happening, or about to happen. The climate will be of violence ongoing and more piling on- that’s what wars and rumors of wars means. The Middle East is a tinderbox today, and the situation there is similar to Europe just before WWI. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by one man was all it took to spark a global war of devastating carnage. As this history website states it, “Two bullets fired on a Sarajevo street on a sunny June morning in 1914 set in motion a series of events that shaped the world we live in today. World War One, World War Two, the Cold War and its conclusion all trace their origins to the gunshots that interrupted that summer day. ” The difficulty of Sword at this tenuous time is the fact that one shot out of a unexpected country could be THE thing which sparks pre-Tribulation wars, and will definitely spark post-rapture Judgment wars.

The thing to ponder is that the Aurora Theater Massacre redefined violence. One of those redefinitions is that no parent or child or person of any kind will ever feel relaxed in a place that is designed for relaxing ever again. Gathering in public space with a faceless multitude is increasingly dangerous. Attending sports games, concerts, parades, or even in the relatively smaller venue of movie theaters is taking a chance. But increasingly, staying at home is dangerous too. People are breaking in brazenly, whether or not there is visible evidence of occupation. Home invasions are at an all time high. And murders on the street are just as bad.

Now imagine that feeling of discomfort and vigilance extended to a hyper degree, knowing nowhere is safe, ever. Because peace will be taken from the earth, and His sword will bring constant hostility, violence and carnage.

That would be bad enough, but Sword is only ONE of the four sore judgments. As the LORD said in Ezekiel 14:21, ‘how much worse will it be when all four are unleashed?’

His judgments are sore indeed. But I am convinced of one thing. We persevering saints are walking through trials and praying for strength to encourage others in these dark days, it is a good thing that it is so dark. Because as my heart sees more sin, more evil, more trampling on Jesus’ name, and I cry out to the Lord, how much BETTER will our joy be when we see Him? The lower we see the world descending, the higher we will see Him when He calls.

The next of the Four Severe Judgments we’ll examine will be Famine.

Posted in heat wave, judgment, prophecy, storms

(Updated 2X) Have you forgotten about Debby already? Fires, Derechos and heat make Debby seem like old news

Posted on by elizabethprata

Update : In an ironic twist to the fulfillment of what I said below regarding media’s use of ever-topping superlatives to try and explain the outsized events occurring almost daily now, the derechos that occurred yesterday and reported on this morning, are by this afternoon called SUPER-derecho. From Accuweather: “Deadly Super Derecho Strikes Midwest, Mid-Atlantic“

———————————

UPDATE from the Weather Channel summarizing last night’s storms:

We are awakening to reports of some severe weather here in the eastern US overnight.
“As storm reports continue to come in from the severe storms, meteorologists say the storm reports from this event are the 2nd highest reported in a single day in 2012. Millions are without power and travel has been impacted. AMTRAK service has been suspended from Washington D.C. to Philadelphia and Washington D.C to Baltimore due to downed trees and signal power. At least two have died from storm related injuries as of early Saturday morning.”
—————————–

Original post:

Meteorologist Heather Brinkmann wrote, “Check out this radar composite of the derecho that went thru the Ohio Valley today”

NOAA defines derecho as “a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to that of tornadoes, the damage typically is directed in one direction along a relatively straight swath.”

This is what a derecho looks like in real life:

source

Source NOAA

Definitely a scary looking storm.

Although derechos are not unheard of, they are not an everyday occurrence, either. See this frequency map from NOAA. Yesterday’s derecho occurred in exactly the place they most likely occur, “along the “Corn Belt” from the upper Mississippi Valley southeast into the Ohio Valley, and the other from the southern Plains northeast into the mid Mississippi Valley.”

Source NOAA

Yesterday’s storms were damaging, especially to the people in Washington DC. This morning millions are without power, and in some cases, it will take multiple days to get them hooked up again. This is bad news, because the extreme heat is supposed to continue. Today’s temps are predicted to be triple digit again. A dangerous situation for sure.

The weather has continually been outsized. I often talk about the language newscasters and meterologists use to describe what they are seeing. Increasingly since 2009 they use superlatives such as “greatest,” “biggest”, “most damaging”. But even those top superlatives don’t describe what is happening any more. The events keep topping themselves. They now say “Apocalyptic,” “epic”, “biblical,” and “record breaking” or “historic.”

The power of words diminishes the more you use one, and the term ‘record-breaking’, after a while doesn’t mean much if records are being broken every day. And they are. Even the Guardian UK asked what is going on:

America in grip of fire and floods
“Natural disasters are wreaking havoc across the US, with the entire state of Florida on emergency flood watch – while, in Colorado, half of the country’s entire firefighting force is battling massive blazes that have displaced thousands.”

Floods? What floods? Tropical Storm Debby. Oh yes, that’s right. Forgotten in the face of the Colorado wildfires, and then immediately after that, the extreme heat and then the derechos. Four disasters in one week, and the brain tries to maintain a sense of perspective, but it can’t. Something has to give. Debby’s devastating flooding is now relegated to the dustbin of old news, even though it happened just 5 days ago.

I wonder how quickly the plagues of Egypt happened, how long in between them they occurred. Maybe the first few started slowly but by the time the 7th, 8th, 9th plagues came they were overlapping.

Though these are not eschatalogical (end times) judgments per se, like the biblical plagues were, they seem pretty bad as it is. In reading newspaper articles about them, people often refer to the bible. Here is a quote from the Guardian article:

“Local Amanda Rice said: “It was just this God-awful orange glow. It was surreal. It honestly looked like hell was opening up.”

This is from the Colorado Springs Gazette:

WALDO CANYON FIRE: Hell in the rearview mirror

“And there I sat in traffic. It’s a memory I’ll never forget. I teared up as I scanned the surrounding cars. Everywhere were children, scared and crying, their parents looking deathly afraid and, in my rearview mirror, a view of the gates of hell.”

I want you to think about the heat wave. Here in North GA we had actual temps of 111 yesterday, though the predictions were for 105. Today the predictions are for 109 but I wonder how high the actual temps will be. They are saying that heat indexes (real feel) will be over 114. Yet it will get worse.

During the tribulation, one of the bowl judgments will be to heat up the earth so that people are literally scorched. “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.” (Revelation 16:8-9).

Bu that time they know and understand that it is God making the crazy weather, not “mother Nature” or “global warning”, because the verse says they curse Him. I wonder if it will be that He makes it so hot that asphalt and wood spontaneously combust…or if solar flares actually singe the earth itself…I don’t know. But you can imagine the havoc in DC this morning with no electricity yet all this heat. People are going to die today if they can’t get cool, it is just a fact. The elderly and the infants and sick will succumb in hot apartments where no air stirs and they can’t seem to catch a breath. And yet the bible shows us how much worse it will get.

One thing is better. All this crazy weather activity seems to be making people whose hearts are not closed to Him think of Him. Twitter is the current iteration of vox populi, a Latin term literally meaning ‘voice of the people.’ Broadcasters use it, a man on the street kind of thing. What are the people saying? Well, this morning I woke up to find on the trending list, “Zechariah 14:9.” I can’t tell you how rare it is for biblical things to be trending. That means enough people have to be talking about a certain thing over all the world’s twitter users, to make the subject one of the top ten of all the things that vox populi could be talking about. Almost always the trends list  is stuffed with celebrity news, sports, and meaningless jokes.

Zechariah 14:9 says:

“And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.”

The saints know Jesus is coming soon. We are excited to see what He is doing in the world. Not that people are in pain, obviously, but that His name is on the lips of many, His glory and power are noticed, and that His word is repeated online between and among believers and non-believers alike. This ‘crazy weather’ isn’t crazy. It is a controlled series of events from the Creator of weather, the Creator of the earth and all that is in it. He is telling us something. How many warnings will there be? Not many more, I fear. He has been patient with us, kind and generous. That period of warning will end and after the rapture, the judgments will begin.

I pray you are among the blessed who have already made Jesus your Lord and King. Repentance is the key. Repenting of your sins and appealing to the One Sacrifice who has the ability to forgive them is the way to heaven. The only way. For as the verse in Zechariah says, the LORD will be King over all the earth. Will you face Him as friend, or enemy? Repentence is the key.

Posted in flip off, homosexual, judgment, prophecy

Flipping off Reagan in the White House and the judgment of the wrath of abandonment

Posted on by elizabethprata
Is there any one picture that can illustrate better that the LORD of the Universe has given over the nation of America and has abandoned us to our reprobate mind??
Gay Activists Visiting White House Take Photos of Themselves Flipping Off Reagan Portrait
Image source: Facebook

The photo is of homosexual activists who had been invited to the White House. They chose to demonstrate their decorum and manners by raising their middle fingers to the portrait of a former President who had served 30 years ago.

Who’s dead.

Yeah, those lesbians sure showed Reagan. Sigh.

The main issue isn’t even of homosexuality primarily. When one is invited to the People’s House, the national seat of power, and arguably the most powerful location on the planet, choosing to demonstrate your sexuality in the White House living room instead of your private bedroom is beyond juvenile. Raising your middle finger in public, especially that place of honor and distinction, is beyond immature and profane. Stay classy, ladies. Oops, too late.

Homosexuals insist they are not defined by their sexual orientation but the photo below and their actions like this and others make it clear they are led by their lust. They claim that they just want to live an ‘out’ life being “who they are” but they prove over and over that who they are, are people who are led by perverted lust with an inability and unwillingness to control themselves. Certainly they are not led by reasonable decision making as mature adults living a lifestyle of respectful civil discourse and behavior…

Gay Activists Visiting White House Take Photos of Themselves Flipping Off Reagan Portrait
Image source: zoestrauss.blogspot.com

Strauss posted a second photo on her blog with the comment: “Me and LB making out under a portrait of Reagan at the White House. That was amazing.” (source)

Romans 1:18-31 describes the progression of “God’s Wrath Against Mankind.” That is what the section of verse is called. It outlines what happens when individuals and a nation decide to overthrow the sovereignty of God and pursue their own lusts. In an interview this week with Brannon Howse of WorldView Weekend, Dr. John MacArthur explained this wrath, which he called the Wrath of Abandonment:

“I believe America is under Divine judgment, and I’m not saying that just as a whim. Romans 1 says, Romans 1:18 says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Okay, if we took America and asked, did we have the truth? We had the truth, yes. But we have held the truth in unrighteousness, getting increasingly unrighteous.”

“So what is the wrath of God against us? Well, it defines it in verses 24, 26 and 28. “He gave them over,” “He gave them over,” “He gave them over.” This is not eschatalogical wrath, this is not eternal wrath, this is not sort of consequential wrath (sowing and reaping), this is not cataclysmic wrath, like the flood or like a tidal wave, this is the wrath of abandonment. God gave them over, gave them over, gave them over. And you see a sequence.”

“When this wrath acts – and according to Acts 14 He allows all the nations to go their own way, so this is the cycle of human history – when this wrath is in action, the first thing he says is, God gave them over to fornication. The first thing that happens, you will notice a sexual revolution, you will notice that sexual behavior will begin to be accepted outside of marriage. Then he says in verse 26, He gave them over to homosexuality, women with women doing that which is unacceptable, men with men, and it even talks about getting the due results of their sin, which would be something like AIDS.”

“So you can tell when a society has been turned over by God, abandoned: first, there’s the sexual revolution, that’s the 60’s, the whole Playboy sexual deal, the hippie culture, then you get a homosexual revolution. Then verse 28, God gives them over to a reprobate mind. Now nobody can think straight, and all the stuff that follows out of that. I think that’s what we’re seeing in America. You’re not gonna overpower God’s judgment on this country at that level.” (HT for transcription to Sola Sisters)

The word reprobate in the verse ‘reprobate mind’ is actually depraved, and it is defined in the Greek as “rejected, fail the test”. Mind is translated, “the God-given capacity of each person to think (reason); the mind; mental capacity to exercise reflective thinking. For the believer, is the organ of receiving God’s thoughts, through faith.”

So back to the beginning when I asked “Is there any one picture that can illustrate better that the LORD of the Universe has given over the nation of America and has abandoned us to our reprobate mind?” I believe, NO. I believe that it is the picture of God’s judgment of Wrath of Abandonment and an example of the National Reprobate Mind.

Posted in earthquakes in diverse places, judgment, prophecy

Earthquakes in diverse places

Posted on by elizabethprata

With half the year gone, I decided to update my earthquake data. My last update was Dec. 31, 2011. With the many prophetic references to the coming earthquakes both as signs (Mark 13:8) and judgment (Is 29:6; Zech 14:5; Rev 6:12), I decided to check the United States Geological Survey data and see how the quake numbers are running. Click to enlarge.

Source

The KIND of quakes have been more worrisome than the sheer number of them. For example:

Mayo (Ireland) quake surprises seismologists
“A leading seismologist has said yesterday’s earthquake off the west coast was “unexpected” and poses “very interesting questions for geologists”. The earthquake, which registered a magnitude of four on the Richter scale, was recorded as 60km west of Belmullet, Co Mayo, at a depth of 3km, at 8.58am. It was the largest local seismic event ever recorded, according to Tom Blake of the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN) and the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies. It was also the second-largest local earthquake on record in either Britain or Ireland, he said – the first being of 5.4 magnitude on July 19th, 1984…”

Remember the Northern Italy quake two weeks ago that was a thrust quake (which is two plates thrusting one over the other) but the location of the quake was hundreds of miles from the plate boundaries? Seismologists could not figure that one out either. They called it “weird”.

Another earthquake in a diverse place, (Mark 13:8) occurred yesterday in Tamworth Australia

Quakes shake up townships in state’s north 
“The centre’s director Kevin McCue said these were the first earthquakes greater than magnitude 4 to strike inland northern NSW since December 1969, when a magnitude 5 quake struck near Coonabarabran. “It’s unusual to have an earthquake of this size.” (They both were 4.2 mag).

How about THIS weird happening? June 4, Lake Erie:

Freak wave sweeps three off beach
“A sudden wave that swept several people off the beach on Sunday, was likely an edge wave, or seiche. The National Weather Service confirms the rare event which almost took the lives of three Lake County teenagers. “It came up on us so fast we didn’t have time to react,” said Connor Bachmann, 15, of Madison, who was standing on the beach with a number of other people Sunday evening about 6 o’clock. “It started pulling on us and when I turned my back it completely covered us and started pulling us out.” Bachman, Molly McGill, and Rachel Pridemore were swept out almost half a mile onto the lake, almost instantly. “I’m a strong swimmer and I never felt that helpless in my life,” Bachmann admitted. “I thought I was going to die.” Jim Channell of Kirtland Hills witnessed the whole thing. He just happened to be on his jet ski, heading for shore, when he saw the seiche crash onto the beach. “It took out the whole beach,” he told WKYC, with amazement still in voice. “I didn’t believe what I was seeing. Then it hit a second time.”

The seiche has happened before, just not frequently. The last one was 1942 and one before that in 1882. It looks like water sloshing around in a goldfish bowl and is thought to occur either when a far off quake happens, or wind and air pressure makes the wave pounce. This one was 7 feet. In but a moment it swept the three teens half a mile out.

“Throughout history, God has used earthquakes in many ways for various reasons. The Bible shows that God used earthquakes in history to show His presence, His deliverance, His wrath and His power. God will also use earthquakes yet in the future to announce Christ’s Return, accompany prophetic events, and reshape the earth’s surface. In Matthew 24, Christ told His disciples of the signs that would precede His Second Coming. In verse 7, He stated, “and there shall be…earthquakes, in diverse places.” This meant earthquakes would take place in various places—scattered throughout the world—and would increase in frequency as the time of His Return drew near (see Mark 13:8 and Luke 21:11). Had earthquakes been as prolific throughout history as they are today, then they would not indicate that the end of the age was near. They are much more common now than at any other time in history. ” (source)

So that is the quick and dirty on quakes lately!

Posted in ark, days of Noah, flood, judgment, repent, the deluge

The Lord is coming soon

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Lord is coming soon. He will call His bride (the believers) up to Him. After that He will begin judgment on the remaining unbelieving world.

The Lord is coming soon.

“Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4)

In Noah’s day, they didn’t believe they would be held individually accountable to a Holy God for their sins and were doing and thinking evil continually. (Gen 6:5-7). The LORD prepared judgment, and told Noah to build the ark because He was going to wipe out mankind. He said He would do it, and He did it.

How long did the world have to prepare? “When Noah is first mentioned in Genesis 5:32, he is 500 years old. When Noah enters the ark, he is 600 years old. The time it took to build the ark would depend on how much time had passed between Genesis 5:32 and the time that God commanded Noah to build the ark (Genesis 6:14-21). At the absolute most, it took 100 years.” (source). Knowing God’s patience and longsuffering, (Numbers 14:18) we can surmise that the Lord used Noah’s righteous life among all who lived at the time (Genesis 6:9) as an example. We can surmise that the ark building activity itself was an example, too. Just as Christians today are an example to the ungodly. “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20)

We can think of the conversations at Noah’s place that went a little something like this:

Artist-Attributed to Francesco Bassano

Building year 1:
Noah! What are you doing?
Building a boat because the LORD is angry at the sin in the world and will destroy it.
HA HA HA Noah, you’re nuts. Everyone’s going to heaven, didn’t you know that? Love wins.

Building year 25:
Noah! Are you still building that thing?
Yes. The LORD is patient but righteous and He will judge sin and sinners.
HA HA HA Noah, there is no God! He would have shown up by now. Think for yourself!

Building year 75:
Noah! You should be ashamed. Your whole family is involved with this thing now.
Yes, we follow the LORD. The LORD is angry with sinners and will judge the world. Repent.

DORÉ, Gustave

HA HA HA I’m fine, I’m a good person. YOU’RE the one who’s nuts. Come to the market with us, get your mind off this ark thing.

“First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.” (2 Peter 3:3)

Building Year 99 and 360 days:
Noah! Aren’t you tired of that by now? Give it up, man. Come to Joe and Pete’s wedding. There’s free booze.
The LORD is holy and wants all to be righteous. Repent.
HA HA HA No wonder no one wants to be around you, Noah, you’re so intolerant.

100 years after the command to build the ark: DEATH

I say the Lord is coming soon. I do not think it is early in the call to repent. I do not think it is in the middle of the time set aside for His longsuffering to call sinners to His bosom. I do not think it is late in the Age of Grace. I think it is VERY LATE.

BOURGEOIS, Léon Pierre Urbain

One of the times in one of the years, one of the months the mockers who mocked and the scoffers who scoffed mocked once too often, and scoffed once too many, and the Day came.

“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Mt 24:38-39)

The Lord is coming soon. It won’t be 100 years from now. It could be tomorrow. Are you ready?

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2012/01/lord-is-coming-soon.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in judgment, prophecy, rapture

Back to Basics: What is the Rapture?

Posted on by elizabethprata

In this Back to Basics series, I strive to ask and answer common questions of a more basic nature, rather than do what I normally do, which is to study the nuances of scripture in light of current events. I do the latter because we seem to be very far along on God’s timeline in advancing toward the end of the Church Age, and I want bible believing Christians to be aware of the fact of the Church Age’s end, and to be aware of their responsibilities in light of this end. However, because we are so close to the end of the Church Age, that means when we are raptured, billions will be left behind, and a few of those will turn to Christian websites looking for answers. These people will not care about the nuances of prophecy, because a great deal of it will have already come to pass and as for the rest, they will need catching up on, FAST. It is these people for whom I write the Back to Basics series.

The rapture is not mentioned explicitly in much of the bible, though it is hinted at throughout, such as this from Isaiah 26:19: “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.” The most explicit verses are in:

–1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

–1 Corinthians 15:20-23, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.”

–1 Cor. 15:51-52, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

The rapture will be a supernatural event taking place at a date and time no one knows. The 1 Thessalonians verse mentions a trumpet and a shout, but these noises will not be heard by those who are not being called. For these, they will simply be going about their day, perhaps talking directly to a bible-believing Christian, and the believer will simply go ‘poof’ and disappear.

That is the rapture. What the rapture is NOT is Jesus’s Second Coming. In that supernatural event which takes place at the end of the Tribulation (7-year period of judgment on earth), He will physically arrive on earth at the end of the Tribulation to finish the transgression and put an end to sin Himself. In the rapture, Jesus comes to meet us in the air, He does not touch down to earth. He isn’t seen by all, only the believers who are dead and alive.

Where did we go? We were called to heaven by Jesus to be sequestered during the coming Tribulation, another supernatural time in which earth dwellers will experience hell on earth as judgment for their sins. (Isaiah 26:20, Daniel 9:24, John 14:3).

Why did we go? We were called by Jesus to the place He has been preparing for us (John 14:3). We get to go there because of our of belief in the Gospel (that Jesus came to earth to live a sinless life, die on the cross as the sacrificial lamb taking the penalty for our sins, and was resurrected on the third day proving He is God). He has rewarded us for this faith by removing us out of harm’s way before the judgments on sinners begins. Because the Tribulation time after the rapture is a period of judgment of sins, and our sins were forgiven because we believed on Jesus and Gospel, then it stands to reason we would not be here when the wrath begins. He isn’t angry at us. Indeed, we are told told we are not appointed to wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9). The people who were left behind are the ones who refused to believe on Jesus despite all the evidence, and thus remained in their sins, an enemy of God. He will now judge those people and their sins.

You may be surprised by who is left behind. Not all people who went to church, or seemed devout, or had a big position in church such as deacon, or pastor, or bishop, or even pope, are true believers. Actually the bible tells us there will be few real believers. That is because we can only see the outside of a person but Jesus sees the inside. He knows who has truly repented. Many have only made an outward show if it, and that is why they were left behind, They were not really believers in Jesus’s eyes.

The rapture marks the end of the Church Age’s invisible supernatural and the beginning of the visible supernatural. For millennia, the powers, principalities, and princes of the air (demons and their kingdom Ephesians 2:2, Ephesians 6:12), the good angels (Hebrews 13:2), and also Jesus glorified, remained behind the veil invisible to human eyes. Jesus was in heaven and we were on earth and for the most part, the two remained mingled but invisible- but very active! In one case, the Lord in the Old Testament showed Elisha’s servant just how potent and vigorous the activity behind the veil is:

“Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:15-17).

In the Old Testament there were occasional eruptions of the supernatural, the Flood, miracles such as the parting of the Red Sea, the ten plagues of Egypt, Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath where the wheat never ran out, and other examples. We also see the supernatural in Jesus’s ministry on earth for three and a half years and His resurrection, then the Apostles’ miracles. After that, for 2000 years the miraculous and the demonic have largely been invisible from human eyes. But make no mistake, just because they have been invisible, it doesn’t mean they have not been active. At the rapture, the supernatural becomes visible in the form of millions who have instantly disappeared, likely leaving behind their clothes, their vehicles, their glasses, their teeth filings, etc. The remaining 7 years the supernatural will be visible, and in an horrific way, too.

For example, the coming of the antichrist is in full power of false signs and wonders, (21 Thessalonians 2:9), in Revelation 9 demons are let out of the bottomless pit to plague the people on earth, 144,000 Jews are supernaturally sealed and thus protected during this time so they can continue the work of spreading the Gospel (Revelation 7:3-4), rivers and streams will turn to blood, (Revelation 16:4) the sun will go dark (Matthew 24:29-30)…etc. These supernatural events will be seen by one and all.

If you are reading this and are left behind, wondering what happened, you have made an excellent start by turning to a Christian site. However, do not delay in deciding whether what is written here is true or false. The Lord will send a great delusion upon the whole world, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).

No one knows exactly what that delusion is, but you can see from the verse that it is bad. “Those who perish’ means people who don’t believe in Jesus. It is phrased that way because unforgiven sin in a person means they are spiritually dead and destined for hell. Perishing. This delusion will cause a person to be unable to turn to Jesus in belief for salvation. Since it is so complete and final, and since no on knows exactly when God will send this delusion, don’t wait! The biggest sign that you could receive is the fact that millions are inexplicably missing!! The best and only explanation that fills the bill are the scriptures that foretell this event’s occurrence. What other proof does a person need?

Here are further resources for your study:
GotQuestions.org: What is the rapture of the church?
Bible.org: When Christ comes for His church

Bibles online:
Bible Gateway
Online Parallel Bible

Dictionary of biblical terms. If you want to know what ‘salvation; means, or ‘repent’, or ‘sin’, go to that link for short explanations.

I wrote this because it seems the rapture may be close. How can I know this if the event is signless and imminent (dependent on nothing else for it to occur?) because the prophesies we know will occur during the Tribulation are nearing readiness for fulfillment. On Friday, Dec 30, 2011, I wrote that “The Prophetic Infrastructure is Almost Complete.” In that essay I’d written,

“The infrastructure is being laid. Remember, the Tribulation is only 7 years long. In that time, the global economy is completely changed. The global political structure is completely changed. The temple will be rebuilt and sacrifices ongoing. Old hatreds must be ignited and hot for war. We see that now. Seven years is a short period. In my opinion the infrastructure is being laid now so that when the rapture happens it all will be put together almost instantly.”

In his January 1 sermon and prophecy video, Pastor JD Farag said,referring to the Tribulation judgments on the near-horizon and the current prophetic acceleration, “Everything that is happening, is happening swiftly and even simultaneously. And if you think about it, it really has to happen this fast. Because, there is no way that the antichrist would have enough time during the 7-year tribulation to get everything, to set everything in place. It has to already be in place and ready to go by the time he comes on the scene.” [min 2:35-3:10 approx)

And later in the video at 13:40,

“I think this is about to come to pass. And if we see this now, at this stage, as we reach the end of the age, and it ultimately finds its fulfillment in the 7-year Tribulation, how close are we?” Luke 21:28 says, after listing the signs and the judgments, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

When these things begin to happen… do not put off deciding on eternity. Jesus is real, He is alive, and He wants to forgive your sins. It is your sin that makes you an enemy of our Holy God.

The website at Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry says “Sin is anything that is contrary to the law or will of God. For example: if you lie, you have sinned. Why? Because God has said not to lie (Exodus 20:16). If you do what God has forbidden, then you have sinned. In addition, if you do not do what God has commanded, you sin (James 4:17). Either way, the result is eternal separation from God (Isaiah 59:2). Sin is lawlessness (1 John 1:3) and unrighteousness (1 John 5:17). Sin leads to bondage (Rom. 6:14-20) and death (Rom. 6:23). Paul, in the book of Romans, discusses sin. He shows that everyone, both Jew and Greek, is under sin (Rom. 3:9). He shows that sin is not simply something that is done, but a condition of the heart (Rom. 3:10-12). In Ephesians Paul says that we are “by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3). Yet, “while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly,” (Rom. 5:6).”

What do you need to do to get saved, preferably NOW before the rapture happens? Here is an explanation

What do I need to do to get saved?
What is salvation?

The best New Year’s resolution you can make is to pray to the Holy Spirit for understanding and conviction of your sins. Conviction just means you consciously know your sins and you feel really bad about them because you know they are crimes against Holy Jesus. Do not delay. Things are happening fast now.

Please feel free to share this essay liberally, and even go to the links I provided because they are better written and sourced. Jesus is the answer. He always has been. Please do not delay so long that you come to understand this after the rapture, or worse, after you die. After the rapture it will be harder to be saved and you likely will die before you’re saved anyway, because the second judgment is war everywhere in the world, and the fourth judgment is death to 1/4 of people in the world. And if you wait so long deciding that you die without having repented, your position is fixed eternally. Join us NOW in salvation, and then join us in looking up, for our Redemption draws nigh!
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=%20http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2012/01/back-to-basics-what-is-rapture.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in babylon, judgment

Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 3

Posted on by elizabethprata

Babylon: The Spiritual & Economic Harlot, Part 1
Babylon: The Spiritual & Economic Harlot, Part 2

Is the USA in end times prophecy? Perhaps the most asked question after, ‘are we in the end times now?’ I admit I go back and forth on the answer. I cannot dogmatically say one way or the other because as far as I can tell from my limited studies, the bible doesn’t say one way or the other.

For a long time I believed that the US was not a specific player in end times prophecy, any more or less than any other nation that is on the earth, except for the biblically identified nations in last times prophecy in the Middle East. After all, Iraq is home to Babylon, Israel is the navel of the world, Egypt is ancient, Damascus is 4000 years old. America as Americans know it is less than 300 years old. Why should we of all places have any part in this ancient drama?

But then there are some things that trouble me in attempting to resolve. Babylon is the focus of Revelation 17 and 18. Rev 17 Babylon is the fall of Spiritual Babylon and Rev 18 is fall of Economic Babylon. The city itself is also mentioned. Revelation 18:9b mentions it twice as a city, as does verse 16, 18, 19 and 21. It is said seven times to be a city in Revelation 18. So Babylon is not just a spiritual false religion and not just an economic system, it is an actual city, too.

Babylon in Iraq exists. It is partly abandoned but before Saddam Hussein was killed he was rebuilding it. He actually thought of himself as a modern king Nebuchadnezzar and had bricks made that one one side had the name Hussein and on the other side had the name Nebuchadnezzar imprinted. Some have speculated, including myself, that after the Iraq war ends the investments and money flowing to the city would propel it to prominence.

However there are some details that do not make sense in thinking of the Iraq Babylon as the prophesied city. In Revelation 18 there is much mention of ships seafaring cargoes and sailors and captains. Babylon Iraq is 375 miles from the Persian Gulf. Merchants are mentioned, commodities, but why sailors and seafaring cargoes? The verse says:

“For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.’ Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like this great city?’ “They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.’ (Rev 18:17-19).

So the sailors stand off at sea watching the demise of Babylon the city… The verse goes on with this title punctuating the story:

“Finality of Babylon’s Fall”
“Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore.” (Rev 18:21).

So the finality of Babylon’s demise comes from the sea. How can this be if Babylon is the desert Babylon? Just because we can’t picture it now does not mean it won’t come to pass the way described. The Tribulation is full of devastating earthquakes and perhaps one of them cracks the land enough so that Babylon becomes waterfront property.

But another notion comes to mind. I am speculating here. Perhaps Babylon is New York City.

Revelation 18 is all about the fall of the evil economic system. The world’s current economic woes began when Lehman Brothers fell, sparking an economic panic and decline that continues to this day. Wall Street is home to the brokerage houses that caused the economic panic and global decline. The world’s reserve currency is the US Dollar, and NYC is home to all currency at one point or another. NYC drives the world’s economy.

NYC is also home to the United Nations, thought to be a progenitor of the home to the one world government prophesied to come in Revelation 13. NYC is a busy port. Within one generation, the US has been both the strongest ally to the new nation of Israel and its biggest betrayer. Islam calls us two the Great Satan and the Little Satan. Here, Patrick Heron makes a case for Babylon the city being NYC.

The first rule of biblical understanding is to take the bible literally where it is obvious it should be taken literally. Babylon was and is a city in Iraq. I’m still inclined to believe the prophecy will culminate in the literal place the bible tells us it will, but I am throwing out this a possibility to chew on.

Read for yourself in the bible, and read widely. Revelation is not the only place that the final judgment of Babylon is discussed. Jeremiah 50 & 51, and Isaiah 13 are but a few examples. The idea is to read and pray for understanding with open mind. We can’t be dogmatic about the details when the details are not given.

True believers in the church will not be on earth when the final judgments occur, and certainly not be here to witness Babylon’s fall. However, we will praise the Lord for its death! Revelation 18 shows the earthly lament for Babylon’s fall, but Revelation 19:1-6 shows the heavenly praise for the Lord’s final sweeping away of the curse that Babylon is! There is a “Fourfold Hallelujah”!!

“After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,
“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.” And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” And a voice came from the throne, saying,

“Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying,

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.”

Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 1, here
Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 2 here
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=%20http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/babylon-spiritual-and-economic-harlot_4232.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in babylon, judgment, revelation

Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 2

Posted on by elizabethprata

Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 1, here
Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 3 here

God will judge Spiritual Babylon in Revelation 17. Nimrod, Noah’s great-grandson, and his wife Semiramis, brought the first organized false religion to man. His city, Babel, was the place where the Tower was built. The tower was a monument to man and what man could do, not a monument to God and what He can do. God stopped the building of the tower but that did not stop the growing of the false religion. It still grew. Babylon is therefore forever known as by full name: “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth”. (Revelation 17:5)

So where is Spiritual Babylon today? Does she still exist? Yes, she exists. Technically, Babylon the Mother of Prostitutes is the mother of all false religions, starting with Nimrod and his wife, Semiramis, who called herself Queen of Heaven. The Queen of Heaven is mentioned in Jeremiah 44:15-19. The Queen of Heaven’s counterparts in different cultures are Ishtar and Isis. All false religions that spawned from her are the harlot daughters of the original. But there is one religion that can be said not to be a daughter of the original Harlot Babylon but is still the Mother herself: The Catholic Church. Mary is the Catholic’s Queen of Heaven.

I bring Catholicism into this discussion because of the prophecy in Rev. 17:9, “This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.” Rome is known as the City of Seven Hills.  I do not know dogmatically that the city of 7 hills refers to Rome. I do not believe that the Harlot of False Religion is only the Catholic Church, I believe that it refers to ALL false religions in the world. The prophecy in Revelation shows us that though all false religions are tolerated by the Beast (Antichrist), in the middle of the Tribulation the Beast puts a stop to them all, and any semblance of ecumenism goes out the window. Catholicism will not be tolerated. Wicca will not be tolerated. Judaism will not be tolerated. Islam will not be tolerated. The Beast insists all worship HIM and him alone. (Revelation 13:11-18).

But…since the antichrist will emerge from the revived Roman Empire, it behooves us to look at its capital, Rome and the nation nesting inside Rome, Vatican City.

The Fuel Project Series explores the coming New World Order from a Biblical perspective. In this part, it discusses how Catholicism was created by putting a Christian facade on Mystery Babylon paganism. This Fuel Project, Know Your Enemy, Part 23 is only 16 minutes long. It gives a great overview from Constantine onward to the solidification of Catholicism, its marriage to money, and its relation to Babylon.

FUEL Project part 23 transcript, excerpt beginning at ~7:00–
“Stanley’s history on page 40 says, The popes filled the vacant place of the Emperors at Rome, inheriting their power, their prestige and their titles from paganism Pope Damascus recognized the power inherent in his new title. He believed himself to be head over not just the Christian church, but also over the pagans in Rome. It meant complete authority and domination; both the secular and the sacred, under one system. So how was the Roman Church to consolidate this rule over the pagans and the Christians under one system? They needed to somehow iron out the differences between the Babylonian system and the Christian system to create a unity between all peoples… and that meant compromise. What the Catholic Church did was consistently compromise the Gospel message with pre-existing pagan beliefs and adapted it based on whatever form of Babylonian mysticism existed a culture held to.”

That melding of all the religious beliefs will find its ultimate expression in the first half of the Tribulation. This movement has already begun. It is called the Ecumenical movement

Ecumenical movement is a pursuit of a unity in and among all churches with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church began its modern pursuit of ecumenism in 1961, but actually it has always been its stated aim, since at least 1274 if not before. The Catholic Church believes that it is the identical Church Christ founded and that all others have wandered. Ecumenism is the pursuit of the wayward churches back to the Catholic fold.

“Ecumenism takes as it starting point that Christ founded just one Church, not many churches; hence the Roman Catholic Church has as its ultimate hope and objective – that through prayer, study, and dialogue, the historically separated bodies may come again to be reunited with it. Before the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church defined ecumenism as a relations with other Christian groups in order to persuade these to return to a unity that they had broken. Pursuit of unity, thus understood, was always a principal aim of the Church.” (source)

Knowing the past will help us identify the future when it arrives, as we see the pursuit of the folding-in of all religions into one.

A missionary couple our denomination supports recently came to speak of their work. They said that the Catholic Church’s influence and embeddedness in Guatemala makes their work in bringing the truth of the Gospel very hard. The Mayans in the area are completely melded to the Catholic Church, mainly because the Catholic Church allows them to retain their Mayan rituals. Outside one local Catholic Church, he showed us a photo of a cave kind of pit, where the indigenous Indians sacrifice to the Mayan god before entering the Catholic Church to worship. The Catholic Church built the sacrificial pit as an honorary understanding that both religions could be accommodated. Therefore the Mayans sacrifice outside and then enter the Church and leave their money tithe inside.

Vatican City is the smallest nation in the world. It is not just a city, it is its own nation. “The size of a golf course, the Vatican City  is the smallest country in the world. It’s basically a walled enclave inside of Rome, Italy. It’s so small that the entire country does not have a single street address.”

“Another unique thing about the smallest country in the world is that it has no permanent citizens. Citizenship of the Vatican City is conferred upon those who work at the Vatican, as well as their spouses and children, and is revoked when they stop working there. The Vatican City may be small, but it is very powerful. It is the sovereign territory of the Holy See, or the seat of the Catholic Church, its central government, which has over 1 billion people  or about 1 in 6 people on the planet as constituents. The Vatican City was created in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty, which was signed by one of history’s most repressive dictators, Benito Mussolini and is ruled by the Pope, a non-hereditary, elected monarch who rules with absolute authority. He’s the legislative, executive and judiciary all rolled into one. Indeed, the Pope is the only absolute monarch in Europe.”

Interesting, isn’t it?

“The country’s economy is unique: it is the only non-commercial economy in the world. Instead, the Vatican City is supported financially by contributions of Catholics worldwide (called Peter’s Pence – hey, even the Pope accepts credit cards!), the sale of postage stamps and publications, and tourism.”

I had shown through scriptures in Part 1 the tie-in between money and false religion. Being wealthy is not a sin. Abram was wealthy (Genesis  13:2). It’s doing wrong things with the money and for the money that brings judgment. Remember Elisha’s greedy servant Gehazi? “But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought, “Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Aramean, by not receiving from his hands what he brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him and take something from him.” (2 Kings 5:15-27). He ended up a leper. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? They stole from the tithe by falsely holding back and lying to Peter? They ended up dead. (Acts 5)

Jesus reminds us that where vast wealth exists, falsity likely exists too. “And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:23-24). Jesus repeats His warning in the same verse.

How rich is the Catholic Church? Time Magazine wrote in 1965,

“Bankers’ best guesses about the Vatican’s wealth put it at $10 billion to $15 billion. Of this wealth, Italian stockholdings alone run to $1.6 billion, 15% of the value of listed shares on the Italian market. The Vatican has big investments in banking, insurance, chemicals, steel, construction, real estate. … Unlike ordinary stockholders, the Vatican pays no taxes on this income, which led the leftist Rome weekly L’Espresso last week to call it “the biggest “the biggest tax evader in Italy.”

That was in 1965. I wonder how much more wealth the Vatican has accumulated in the ensuing nearly 50 years? If I calculated right, and I may not have, 15 billion in 1965 dollars in today’s dollars would be 105 billion. The Catholic Church is the wealthiest organization on earth. Italian author Avro Manhattan wrote,

“The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars.”

Babylon the False Religion will be destroyed and its partner the Babylon the false economic system will also be destroyed. The Catholic Church has a role to play, whether it is prophetically the Babylon of the city on 7 hills or whether it is a part of the general destruction of all false religions.

The Harlot is mentioned again in the destruction of Babylon the false economic system. “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” (Rev 18:3). It’s called prostitution because of the addition of the exchange of morals, faith, and conscience for money. It is the money exchange that makes it the harlot.

The lesson for us is to heed Jesus’ warnings that vast wealth corrupts. In Revelation 18 when the Babylon economic system is destroyed, the woes that are heard from the crying participants only for the loss of the consumer goods, not the people. It is all about them, they are crying, ‘where will be get our luxuries from, now?’ (Rev 18:11, 14, 18-19).

The Son of Man had no place to lay His head, (Mt 8:20) but the King of Vatican City has golden monstrance, gold embroidered robes, gold jewelry, velvet garments and a satin pillow to lay his head…

Fornication with false religions and fornication as a greedy consumer and hoarder of wealth will find their ultimate whorish marriage both fulfilled in the Tribulation and judged in the Tribulation.

If you are blessed with wealth, that is wonderful. But take care to be a generous giver, (2 Corinthians 9:7), a diligent doer of the Word, (James 1:2) and pray always for the Holy Spirit to guard your heart from prostituting yourself for filthy lucre.
Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 1, here
Babylon: The Spiritual and Economic Harlot, Part 3 here

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=%20http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/12/babylon-spiritual-and-economic-harlot_03.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

Posted in after armageddon, global pandemic, judgment

How thin is civilization’s veneer? Thin, as this documentary shows

Posted on by elizabethprata

The following documentary from The History Channel is riveting. It depicts the beginning of, height, and aftermath of a global pandemic in which billions are killed. The famous phrase “nine meals from anarchy” is explained. It means that, grocery stores only have three days of food in stock at any given time, and when supply chains collapse, and no more food is delivered, people quickly will resort to anarchy when they go hungry. The veneer of civilization is very thin as Hurricane Katrina showed us, and this video illustrates how easily in this globally sophisticated world we can transmit a germ that causes a pandemic, and how soon after that, civilization collapses.

The documentary’s synopsis is- “What have past acts of destruction taught us about what will happen to mankind after the apocalypse? Is it inevitable that disaster will someday strike America on an unprecedented level? How has history prepared us? History’s most dramatic events–Hiroshima, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and others are examined and analyzed with hard data gathered from their massive aftereffects.”

It is all the more vivid because though the documentary begins with the statement: “This film is a theoretical account of a worst case scenario for global disaster.” However, the worst case scenario for global disaster is all too real and the account is a good example of what is going to happen in the future, if you are not raptured. Revelation’s Seal Judgments unleash death on a massive scale and within months, billions die. A fourth of the earth, in fact. Then more after that. (Rev 9:15) One of the Judgments is plague, (Rev 6:8), a global pandemic, exactly like the one shown in the documentary. However, unlike the pandemic in the documentary, the remaining population in the real world Tribulation will also be dealing with wars, violence, and anarchy on a scale never seen before, no, nor shall ever be again. (Matthew 24:21).

Please watch the video with this in mind and turn to Jesus to avoid all the hell on earth that is coming your way. Reconcile with Him, He put eternity in your heart, after all, (Ecc 3:11) so you know you want to…

If you begin watching you won’t be able to stop, they’re that realistic.