point of no return

gay marriage, homosexuality, point of no return, sodom

SCOTUS helping to bring in the Days of Lot (Updated)

Posted on June 26, 2013 by elizabethprata

Updated to add Martin Luther quote

THE NEWS

Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court rulings boost gay marriage
“WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court delivered the history-making ruling sought by [homosexual] marriage supporters, striking down a 1996 federal law that denied benefits to same-sex couples. The court was more cautious in a second case involving California’s ban on [homosexual] marriage, Proposition 8, saying it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. But the result was likely again to benefit same-sex couples because it meant that a federal district court’s ruling striking down Proposition 8 stands, clearing the way for [homosexual] marriage to resume in the nation’s most-populous state.”

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POLITICAL REACTION

“My thoughts on the SCOTUS ruling that determined that same sex marriage is okay: “Jesus wept.” 5 people in robes said they are bigger than the voters of California and Congress combined. And bigger than God. May He forgive us all.” ~Mike Huckabee

“It’s an amazing overreach in arrogance by 5 members of the court who think they can redefine marriage for the Federal Government…there clearly is an overreach here on the CA Prop 8 case.” ~Tony Perkins of Family Research Council

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SPIRITUAL REACTION

“Can we now stop talking about the United States as a “Christian Nation” so that we can get back to preaching the Gospel to pagan Americans?” ~Chris Rosebrough

“The decision of an earthly court does not make so much as a ripple in the eternal decrees of God.” ~JD Hall

“We learn from Jeremiah among others that, as usual, the nearer the punishment, the worse the people become; and that the more one preaches to them, the more they despise his preaching. Thus we understand that when it is God’s will to inflict punishment, he makes the people to become hardened so they may be destroyed without any mercy and not appease God’s wrath with any repentance. So the men of Sodom long ago had to not only despise the righteous Lot, but even afflict him because he taught them—even though their own affliction was at the door [Gen. 19:1–13]. Likewise Pharaoh, when about to be drowned in the Red Sea, had to oppress the children of Israel twice as much as before [Exod. 5:6–21]. And Jerusalem had to crucify God’s Son when its own final destruction was on the way” – Martin Luther

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GOD’S REACTION

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24

“Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. 13 For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” (Genesis 19:12-13)

“…Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.” (Jude 1:7)

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TO BE CLEAR:

“Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” (Luke 17:28)

“How was it in the days of Lot? Lot lived in a city called Sodom. We have a word today called sodomy. We know exactly what that means. That is a homosexual sin. That is a vile kind of behavior drawn out of that city in the plains south of the Dead Sea. What did God do to Sodom? Buried Sodom under fire and brimstone completely. What kind of people lived in Sodom? Read the nineteenth chapter of Genesis and find that when two angels came to visit Lot, the men of that city tried to rape the angels. And when God blinded the men of that city, they still tried to feel their way to smash down the door to get to those angels. That was a vile, wretched place.”

“So the first thing you know about the days of Noah and the days of Sodom is that they were days of wretched, vile, massive, sweeping, consummate evil. And that’s the way it will be in the days when the Son of Man comes.” [source]

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MY TAKE

The verse above regarding the Days of Lot is speaking of the days during the Tribulation when evil pervades the world and the Messiah returns to end it all, not the run-up to the rapture. However, we see the current culture helping satan along to lay the infrastructure that will give immediate rise to such perversions when the rapture does take place.

In Romans 1 we read that homosexuality is not a sin like any other. Homosexuality in itself is an expression of God’s wrath. It is the only sin that IS a judgment upon the person exhibiting it.

However, though any nation that teeters too far against His ordinances will be judged in wrath, His grace is such that any individual is not a lost cause in terms of wanting to repent and find reconciliation with God. The wrath will be poured out on America but it already has been poured out in Jesus for all sins, including the sin of homosexuality.

“we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Ephesians 2:3)

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,…And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9, 11)

“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19b-20)

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

Posted on July 27, 2012May 9, 2016 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!

end time, judgment, point of no return, prophecy

Has America’s point of no return been reached?

Posted on March 23, 2010May 9, 2016 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!