Category: judgment

Posted in heat wave, judgment

Heat wave update: Detroit without power due to excessive demand; evacuations, closures

Posted on by elizabethprata

An update, or an addendum, to an earlier post about the heat wave

Power system failure forces evacuations in Detroit
“Sections of downtown Detroit lost power Thursday afternoon after high demand for energy caused the city’s municipal power system to have a major failure, city officials said. The outage forced the evacuation of the Coleman Young Municipal Center, the McNamara federal building, the county courthouse, Cobo Center and some schools. Mayoral spokeswoman Karen Dumas told The Associated Press she was at her desk typing an email when the blackout occurred at 2:30 p.m. Dumas said the outage was due to extreme power demand in the last few days for air conditioning and city officials had been warned a brownout could occur. She said it could take at least 24 hours to fix the issue, though Detroit’s Chief Operating Officer Chris Brown said he hopes it can be restored by Thursday night. Brown said one of the five transmission lines from a power station on the city’s southwest side went down Wednesday, and two more went down Thursday.”

In the Tribulation, the fourth bowl judgment is heat. If we are experiencing disruption and economic woes now from a one week, 90-degree heat ave, then what of this? Think about the state of the world then. War has claimed a fourth of humanity, Pestilence has claimed more. Successive earthquakes and other violent natural disasters will have pummeled the population. Infrastructure will be damaged, most of it irrevocably broken. Now comes heat, scorching heat, for which there will be no relief. Air conditioners need electricity to run and we see even with this article that most of the aging grid can’t handle the load. Solar storms impact the rest. Please let your heart listen to what your brain is telling you: these things are not from global warming but in fact are warnings from a Just and Holy God who wants us to repent. Time is growing short…He loves us, He loves you. He wants you to become His child by recognizing the sin in your heart and accepting that His death of the cross paid for it before the High Judge in the High Court. Atonement and pardon has come. Will you accept it? He will accept your plea in a moment’s heartbeat, if you will call to Him. He is there.
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Posted in end time, holy fear, john cotton, judgment, repent

Holy Fear: The Great Earthquake, Part 2

Posted on by elizabethprata

Read Part 1 here

The events of late summer-early Fall in New England, described in Part 1 of this three-part essay, were fear-inducing to a high degree. The strange events culminated in an earth-shaking display of mighty power, ripping into the consciousnesses of thousands of slumbering Colonials at a quiet moment in the middle of the autumn night. People ran shrieking out of their homes in their night-clothes, never having experienced such an earthquake before.

Then as now, people try to make sense of the events. Many a preacher was spiritually burdened to preach about it on the next Sunday, and one such was the New England preacher, John Cotton. (1693-1757). The old Puritan preachers were learned, well-versed in the bible, and devout. Most importantly, they preached the correct response to an earth-shattering event: Holy Fear.

We don’t evidence much Holy Fear these days, it is not a popular topic. But Rev Cotton did, and here are a few excerpts to his eminently readable and wonderful sermon. I encourage you to read it in its entirety. Part 3 of this essay will examine how the people of today respond to a similar earth-shaking event. In his sermon, Rev Cotton lays out the procession of thought throughout:

DOCTRINE. The condition and circumstances of a people may be such that their flesh may well tremble for fear of God, and they may wisely be afraid of His judgments. In the prosecution of this doctrine I will show:
1. What is meant by the judgments of God and what judgments we are exposed to that we ought to be afraid of.
2. What is meant by trembling for fear of God and being afraid of His judgments.
3. That our condition and circumstance are such that we have abundant reasons and occasions to tremble and be afraid.

A Holy Fear of God and His Judgments
by John Cotton (1693-1757); Preached November 3, 1727
“My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee; and I am afraid of Thy judgments”
Psalm 119:120

To fear God means that we adore His sovereignty and righteousness even in His awful dispensations and that we employ our serious, devout, and solemn thoughts on these an other glorious excellencies and perfections of Almighty God displayed in His judgments. They must be the subject of our frequent and solemn meditations so that we may always maintain in our hearts suitable apprehensions of the great God who sends His judgments upon us.

Surely the consideration thereof should fill us with the greatest fear and concern of spirit that God has been so provoked that He has had to come out against us in His anger and to threaten our utter ruin and desolation

Did we ever have more reason to stand trembling before God under fearful apprehensions of impending vengeance when we consider the many scandalous, provoking evils abounding among us including oppression, injustice, fraud, deceit, falsehood, evil speaking, pride contention, intemperance, drunkenness, unchastity, excessive and inordinate love of the world, and may I add, the rudeness and profaneness of young people? God Himself, and our duty to Him, is evidently neglected and forgotten by many, and a form of godliness is maintained and kept up without the life and power of it. The sacred and dreadful name of God is dishonored and blasphemed by profane cursing and swearing. His holy Sabbaths, instead of being strictly observed and sanctified, are very much profaned by idle, vain, trifling and unsuitable conduct. Some forsake the house of the Lord, frequently neglecting and needlessly staying away from the public worship of God. Has not manifold contempt been put upon the Lord’s holy ordinances and institutions? Are there not many who disregard coming to them in a serious and worthy manner? Must we not acknowledge that mutual Christian love and charity grow cold? Are not both the love of men to God and the love of men to their neighbors treated with a visible coldness and indifference that clearly mark the lack of the power of godliness? Alas, for this people!

Are not the iniquities I have just described, and many more, prevailing among us and testifying against us, loudly proclaiming our impiety and great degeneracy, declaring that we are an impenitent, incorrigible, and unreformed people still, ripening rapidly for a destruction without remedy? Surely then, if this is the case with us, we have reason to tremble for fear of God and to be greatly afraid of His judgments. We might wisely be afraid of temporal plagues and judgments of a far heavier and sorer nature than we have yet been visited with, for the transgressions of God’s covenant people are exceedingly provoking to Him and richly deserve to be severally punished. I beg of you, do not forget that our sins are the more offensive and provoking to God for we are a people in covenant with Him.

What awful symptoms there are of blindness and hardness of heart right in our midst. Ought we not to fear that men are dreadfully blinded and hardened in their sins when there is not so much as external reformation in connection with such an awful judgment of God as this earthquake?

We learn from this text that it is not cowardly to be afraid of God’s judgments but very agreeable to true Christian courage.

God is no fit match for us to contend with. No one has ever hardened himself against Him and prospered (Job 9:4). He is our Creator, we are His creatures. We are as clay in the hands of the potter. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. God cannot err on His end, as the princes of this world may in the execution of their displeasure through impotency or want of knowledge, for He is infinite in knowledge, wisdom, and power, and there in no comparison between infinite and finite. It is not cowardly then to fear God. Our Saviour advises us,

“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

Such wise fear is agreeable to true Christian courage. This should be expressed in our lives by maintaining a reverential fear of God upon our minds, in fighting against the enemies of our salvation; in mortifying our lusts; in steadfastly persevering in all the duties of our holy religion; in not disobeying His commands, despising His judgments, scorning His rod or setting ourselves in opposition to His threatening, which is the most daring and prodigious folly and madness and will be found so in the end.

How very surprising and amazing was the first sudden shock and convulsion we felt! Our houses and beds were shaking, and the earth was trembling and reeling under us like, I suppose, none ever felt in this part of the world before. And how many times has the awful noise been repeated, though not to such a fearful degree? Well may the people in this city and in the country round about be filled with the surprise and consternation of which we see and hear. Multitudes seem to be under great conviction, distress, and concern about their soul and eternity. Oh, that the impressions might abide until conversion to God is accomplished and the great work of their salvation is completed.
—————————————–
Rev Cotton was fearful that the initial impressions regarding a just, angry, and powerful God would diminish in the light of day and diminish even further as time passed. How well the Reverend knew the sinful nature of craven men. But the response Cotton preached is the ONLY proper response to a God who is wroth with us. He is the Creator, we are His creatures! We are clay in the hands of the potter. We should fall down before Him, seeking forgiveness as we entreat Him to forgive our sins. But do we? Part 3 coming up.
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Posted in end time, judgment, point of no return, prophecy

Has America’s point of no return been reached?

Posted on by elizabethprata

God has a limit, you know. God is love but He is no doormat. He doesn’t overlook sin, patting you on the head, saying, Aww, that’s all right. He does not accept rebellion lightly. He will not accept war against Him under any circumstance.

Did you know that when an individual is so hardened to the truth, He gives them over to it? There IS a point of no return. “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,” (Rom 1:25-26). “But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.”(Exodus 8:15) so the LORD finished the hardening Pharaoh had started, and hardened Pharaoh’s heart completely. (Exodus 10:20). God gives people over to their rebellion after a certain point.

After a certain point God gives nations over, too.

First, remember that He always judges sin. Even if the nation is not at the point where He will judge it, but only discipline it, sin is dealt with. “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.” (Rev 3:19). Haiti repented after the earthquake and that is a praise to our Lord!

But in addition to reproving and disciplining, He judges. Nineveh is the example here. Jonah preached and they repented, from the top to the bottom. The King got up after hearing Jonah and he set aside his robe and he put on sackcloth and the nation fasted and prayed. God was satisfied and stayed their judgment for over 100 years. God had promised that judgment would come, but because of their repentance, an entire generation had been spared it. (Jonah 3:5-9) When the nation had fallen back to their wicked ways – brutality, plunder, idolatry, and after 150 years, they were judged. (Nahum)

He waits a long time before judging. He waited 120 years before sending the Flood. In Genesis 15:13-16 God told Abraham He would judge the Amorites after 400 years, “until their iniquity was complete.” Sincere repentance can delay judgment, as we have seen with the example of Nineveh, but if God deems the nation incurable, judgment WILL come.

God judges a nation for a variety of reasons. He judged Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin of homosexuality. “Genesis 18:20 – “And the Lord said, ‘The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.'” He destroyed the city. There are many, many other examples of God judging the nations for their actions. He judged Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Judah, Moab, and Israel (Amos 1, Judgment of Nations) for idolatry, brutality, oppression, plunder, for not keeping the Commandments of God, for despising God.

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) Usually the judgment is devastating. Nineveh’s was so complete, the city was obliterated and never found until 1845, after almost a thousand years. If you look up “incurable” in a good concordance, or here, you will see He spoke to Jeremiah, Micah, and Isaiah as well as Nahum about the point at which various nations were deemed to be given over to incurable sin.

In aviation, there is a term called the “point of no return.” Wikipedia defines it as “the point on a flight at which, due to fuel consumption, a plane is no longer capable of returning to its airfield of original takeoff. After passing the point of no return, the plane has no option but to continue to some other destination. In this sense, the phrase implies an irrevocable commitment.” The irrevocable commitment…

Is America irrevocably committed to sin? It would seem so. If we are, then we are in danger of God deeming America “incurable” and passing the point of no return. We are the number one national exporter of child porn, abortion ( child murder), gambling, and violence. We are legalizing homosexual marriages, drugs, and making divorce very easy. And not only are we rebellious against God in persisting in these sins, we deliberately fight against Him through deliberate dismantling of His presence in our society. We have removed His commandments from the schools and from public life, government, and speech. We have banned prayer in schools and at public functions. One Supreme Court suit today upheld a ban on the song “Ave Maria” being played at a graduation – the instrumental version, no lyrics, even! It was still banned for being “too religious.” We have ignored His Word in our churches, watering it down to match with the culture. All the nations above were judged for less.

Since our judgment is a surety, all we need to wonder about is “when?” My opinion is “now” or “soon.” The current health care bill that pays for child murder at the taxpayer dime is a heinous crime in God’s eyes. Leviticus 20:3 describes God’s anger against those who sacrificed their children to the god Molech “And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.” Child-sacrifice profanes God. He is serious about His children, the littlest among the little. When we as a nation wantonly kill them it is bad enough. But when that murder is supported from the government levels as a taxpayer funded activity, it becomes a profane that defiles His very sanctuary. Worst, we are cursing the land that He blessed, pushing Israel to divide it, thus straining our relationship with His blessed nation. Will He stand that for all this sin much longer? I do not think so. People get ready!