Category: prophecy

Posted in end time, gog magog, hr 1553, israel, prophecy, psalm 83

Trouble brewing in the Middle East

Posted on by elizabethprata

Anything that happens to, or about, Israel in any time of her life as a nation or a people is worth watching. Israel and the Israelites is the apple of God’s eye. The prophecies tell us that at the end Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling, a burdensome stone, that will cause reeling. “In that day I shall make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” (Zech 12:3) Israel is increasingly in the news, as well as her neighbors. We see the Israel-hate rising even now.

In the news today and in the last few days, we read of troubling developments in the Middle East. The tension increases, to now, almost unbearable levels.

Mullen says US has Iran strike plan, just in case
WASHINGTON – The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff says the U.S. military has a plan to attack Iran, although he thinks a strike is probably a bad idea. Adm. Mike Mullen, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, has often warned that a military strike on Iran would have serious and unpredictable ripple effects around the Middle East. At the same time, he says the risk of Iran developing a nuclear weapon is unacceptable. Mullen would not say which risk he thinks is worse. But he tells NBC’s “Meet The Press” that a military strike remains an option if need be. And he says that, should it come to that, the military has a plan at hand. He didn’t elaborate.

Syria’s president says chances of regional war ‘increasing’
Syrian President Bashar Assad said the chances of a regional war were “increasing,” in comments published by several official media outlets Sunday. “The real peace spectrum in the region is moving away and the prospects of war and confrontation are increasing,” Assad said.

Iran: We will torch Tel Aviv
Syria was not the only country to warn of conflict over the weekend, with Iran’s delEgate to the United Nations warning that his country would burn Tel Aviv if attacked by Israel. “If the Zionist regime commits the slightest aggression against the Iranian soil, we will set the entire war front and Tel Aviv on fire,” Mohammad Khazai told the Farhang-e Ashti daily, according to a report by the AFP news agency. Israel has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations, which it says are aimed at building a bomb – a charge Iran denies.

Turkey Building 10 Meter High Wall inside Jerusalem
For no apparent reason, the Turkish government is building a 10 meter high wall along a section of the Old City wall. Aryeh King, Chairman of the Public Complaints Bureau in eastern Jerusalem, recently noticed signs in Turkish and English around a section of the Old City wall near the Lions’ Gate. The signs proclaimed that a construction project was being carried out by Turkish governmental fund TIKA. Next to the signs, Arab workers were working on completing a huge 10 meter high wall around the Muslin cemetery there. King told Arutz Sheva‘s Hebrew news magazine that there is no apparent reason for building the wall, since a wall already surrounds the Muslim cemetery. The new wall is twice as high as the old one and does nothing to strengthen it, he said. “There is no logic behind this structure, either engineering or landscape-related,” he explained, and the new wall blocks the view of the Old City to drivers passing by it on the Jericho Road.

Video Footage of Rocket Damage on Sderot Child Rehab Center
The upgraded Kassam rocket on Sderot Saturday night scored a direct hit on the ceiling of a children’s hydrotherapy rehabilitation center in the heart of Sderot’s Sapir College, bringing to nearly 400 the number aerial attacks launched from Gaza since the ceasefire which halted Israel’s Cast Lead counter-terror campaign in Gaza in January 2009. The child hydrotherapy rehabilitation center at Sderot’s Sapir College provides therapy and workshops for special-needs children who live in the Western Negev and is used by children from the entire country. The facility was totally decimated. On any other day, a catastrophe would have taken place, killing all the children at the center. During weekdays, the Center is packed with hundreds of children and therapists before it closes at 10 p.m. Israeli intelligence confirms that that the Hamas regime has now assembled an arsenal of over 5,000 missiles with a range of 40 kilometers [25 miles].

 ‘We will resume suicide attacks’
Islamic Jihad plans attacks from West Bank after IAF Gaza raids. Talkbacks The Islamic Jihad organization said on Sunday that it has decided to resume suicide attacks against Israel from the West Bank. The threat came in response to attacks launched by IAF planes on the Gaza Strip following the firing of rockets on Israel in the past few days.

Kiddie Jihad: Child Bombers Terror’s Newest Weapon
WASHINGTON — Islamic terrorists are always looking for new ways to escape detection and carry out their attacks. One of their latest ideas is using children as suicide bombers. The growing phenomenon may soon spread beyond the Middle East to the rest of the world.

Terror groups, however, are taking extremism to new levels by indoctrinating Muslim children in the deadly art of suicide bombing. “The state-sponsored illegal recruitment and education of innocent Muslim children to become suicide bombers and child soldiers is occurring throughout the Muslim and non-Muslim world,” said Brooke Goldstein, founder and director of The Children’s Rights Institute, an organization focusing on human rights violations against children. A 6-year-old Afghan boy recruited in 2007 was told that his suicide belt would “explode into flowers.”

Though ever since the day Israel was made a nation in 1948 there has been tension in the Middle East, and threats, the directness of the threats is a new thing. Threatening specific cities is new. Threatening to use this specific piece of military equipment or other is also new. The frequency of threats, even amid hopes of peace, is new. And certainly the frequency of rocket attacks from Gaza to Israel is heightening.

The prophecy of Isaiah 17:1 will come to pass, and soon I believe. It says “An oracle concerning Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.” This has never come to pass yet because Damascus has never not been inhabited. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Damascus is mentioned in Genesis 14:15. What I’m expecting is that Israel attacks Syria at Damascus, and then this is the catalyst for several nations to retaliate as per the Psalm 83 battle. Those are Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza. Only Egypt as an abutting neighbor isn’t involved.

After that, the Ezekiel 38-39 Gog/Magog battle begins, and it seems that it will be subsequent to the first two of Isaiah 17 and Psalm 83 because none of the nations involved in those two battles are involved in the Gog-Magog battle, and they would be if they could.

In any case, no matter what the chronology, battles will soon erupt in the Middle East it seems. On July 22, 2010, The House of Representatives of the United States introduced HR 1553, a Resolution giving Israel the green light for a strike on Iran:

“Expressing support for the State of Israel’s right to defend Israeli sovereignty, to protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, and to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within reasonable time to protect against such an immediate and existential threat to the State of Israel.” The Resolution ends with:

“Whereas the United States does not want or seek war with Iran, but it will continue to keep all options open to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives— condemns the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its threats of ‘‘annihilating’’ the United States and the State of Israel, for its continued support of international terrorism, and for its incitement of genocide of the Israeli people; supports using all means of persuading the Government of Iran to stop building and acquiring nuclear weapons; reaffirms the United States bond with Israel and pledges to continue to work with the Government of Israel and the people of Israel to ensure that their sovereign nation continues to receive critical economic and military assistance, including missile defense capabilities, needed to address the threat of Iran; and

“expresses support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran, defend Israeli sovereignty, and protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within a reasonable time.”

Resolution 1553 provides explicit support for military strikes against Iran, stating that Congress backs Israel’s use of ‘all means necessary’ against Iran, “including the use of military force,” BBC Persian reported. We see back up to the first headline, that the US has a military plan for Middle East/Iran attacks.

Lord come soon!

Posted in end time, prophecy, sinkhole cumbria

Another sinkhole

Posted on by elizabethprata

 The planet has been plagued lately with a spate of explosions, oil leaks, and sinkholes. A chemical plant exploded in Athens GA yesterday, destroying the plant and sending plumes of toxic smoke into the air and chemicals into a nearby creek. I reported on two oil leaks the other day, one in Kalamazoo River in Michigan (800,000 gallons polluted the river and Lake Michigan). The other was in Louisiana, a tug crashed into an abandoned wellhead, and gas and oil spewed 100 feet into the air. And the sinkholes, goodness, the sinkholes! From China to UK to America to South America, the ground has been sinking, cracking, and simply pitting, into enormous holes that swallow cars, buildings, and whole intersections. The earth will crack up eventually, Isaiah talks about the earth reeling to and fro like a drunkard before it eventually cracks apart. It has been my contention that though we are not in the tribulation now, therefore no judgment is occurring (only warnings- to repent!) that we can see precursors to future prophesied activity. Peeking around the corner we see it all coming like a freight train.

[Above, Athens GA plant explosion.] Now, is it unusual that a chemical plant exploded? No. But the almost daily occurrence of these events from north to south, east to west, IS. Check out this headline from Time Magazine this week China’s Industrial Accidents Quietly on the Rise: “A massive explosion in a southern Chinese city is only the latest in a series of industrial accidents that have hit China in recent weeks. While the country’s economic boom has always been dogged by environmental and safety hazards, the frequency of disasters this summer has raised new questions about whether the country can maintain its pace of expansion without doing catastrophic harm to its people and the environment.”

Here is today’s sinkhole activity. I say ‘today’ because it seems to be occurring on a daily basis now. This one occurred yesterday in West Cumbria, in the northwest of England.

Twenty foot deep hole opens on main west Cumbrian road
“Traffic chaos in Whitehaven town centre is set to continue over the weekend as investigations take place into why part of a road collapsed.  Part of busy Inkerman Terrace collapsed last night, leaving a 20ft deep hole in the carriageway. A Cumbria Highways spokesman said this afternoon that further investigations are being carried out.”

Whitehaven teen tells of shock road hole find
“Josh Pears was heading off on a  camping trip with friends and walking out of Whitehaven on Thursday evening when he noticed the hole in Inkerman Terrace. When he and his friends looked into the hole, which was a matter of inches across, they could see a pipe, but nothing beyond it, and even throwing coins into the darkness couldn’t help them work out how deep it was. The 16-year-old said: “All you could see was the pipe about a foot below the surface, and after that there was nothing. We were throwing pennies in but you couldn’t hear them landing. It could have gone miles down for all we knew.”

When daylight hit, observers said, “The sudden appearance of the hole, alongside the Chase Hotel, spread about 12 feet across the street underneath the surface. Area engineer Karl Melville said this morning: “It’s just a huge hole. There’s nothing there at all. It’s lucky no one fell in to it.”

The Lord Jesus said that the end time would be characterized by birth pangs. The end time is technically the moment of Jesus’ ascension through the clouds to the moment He returns. However, Jesus also said that birth pangs would increase as a sign that the end was nearing. He wants us to notice the time. He wants us to repent, for time grows short. He sends signs and warnings and prophecies, and they are listed in most of the Old Testament books and all but 4 of the New, so that we WOULD repent. Even if you are a Christian, check your walk with Him. Make sure you know where your final destination will be. He said that many will not be saved, even those who think they are saved. I know when the trumpet sounds and He calls for us, I am headed up! Do you know for sure?

Posted in end time, florence chadwick, prophecy

The prophetic finish line

Posted on by elizabethprata

This example is used a lot in sermons and devotionals. It is an oldie but a goodie. I am asking you to think of the example I’ll shortly give in terms of prophecy.

Florence Chadwick was a young woman in 1952 but had already swum the English Channel, both ways, and broke records doing it. That morning in 1952 she stood on the shores of California with intent to swim the 26 miles to Catalina Island. It was foggy. She was used to fog, rough water, and cold, having swum in these conditions since when was 11 years old so she was prepared for any conditions that may beset her on the long swim. It was so foggy that Florence could not see the support boats motoring around her to scare away the sharks. However after 15 hours of rough water stroke after stroke, she felt like she wasn’t getting anywhere. Despite encouragement from her mother and others in the support boat next to her, Florence wearied and asked to be taken out of the water. She soon discovered that she was half a mile from her goal.

Above, the Lubec Maine shoreline. There is lighthouse in this photo. Can you see it? 
[Photo by EPrata]

At a news conference the next day Florence said, “All I could see was the fog.…I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”

Florence tried again two months later. This time, she made it because she said that she kept a mental image of the shoreline in her mind while she swam.

This is the same scene as above after the fog rolled away. [Photo by EPrata]

Prophecy is not meant to BE the fog. It is knowable, profitable, and given to us for all education. It is a light to keep in our heart as to the immutable existence of God, His eternal promises, and the goal for every believer, to reach the eternal Lighthouse. There are end of time prophetic utterances in most of the Old Testament and in every book of the New except for four. And three of those four are single-chapter letters to one individual. Jesus meant prophecy to be the mental image for us to hold dear as to the goal. Do not give up half a mile from the finish line! He is near, He is coming. Do not wander, drift, be swept away by currents taking you far from the goal. May every stroke of your swim toward eternity be as vigorous as the one before. Pray for that vigor. The Holy Spirit is there to help us:  “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;” (John 14:16)

If you knew that the Rapture was tomorrow would it change your decision not to study the bible today? Not to pray? Not to help someone? If you knew it was next week, or next year, how differently would you act as a Christian? You’re tired. We are all tired. The wages of sin splash up on us, and sometimes splash into us. It is wearying holding firm against the current. But keep the goal in mind!

Most marathon swimmers swim between 60 and 70 strokes a minute. Therefore, a 10-hour swim would require 42,000 strokes, and a 14-hour swim would require 58,000 strokes-an incredible feat. That is a lot of energy to expend to make the landing, reach the goal. There are sharks in the water wanting to make you their dinner. There is flotsam, waves, hindrances such as tide or current. But there is the Spirit in the boat next to you, helping, guiding, encouraging. There are angels flying around you to scare away the demons. If you become defeated it is only because you closed yourself to help, succumbed to temptation to drift, and forgot the vision. The shore is near, and the goal is within our reach. Keep swimming! And soon, He will lift us from the cold and tormenting waters of sin …  and we will fly!

Posted in end time, prophecy

Archaeologists Uncover John the Baptist Relics in Bulgaria’s Sozopol

Posted on by elizabethprata

Exciting news from Bulgaria today:

“Parts of St. John the Baptist’s relics might have been discovered during archaeological excavations in Bulgaria’s southern Black Sea town of Sozopol, report Bulgarian media. Archaeologists investigating the Sv. Ivan (St. John) island off Sozopol have found an exquisite reliquary – a relic urn – built in the altar of an ancient church bearing the name of St. John the Baptist. The reliquary has the shape of a sarcophagus and is dated end of 4th – beginning of 5th c. AD. It was discovered by the team of Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov. The church’s name, as well as the fact that it had a special emperor’s statute issued, has hinted to archeologists that it might actually contain St. John’s relics. The urn is expected to be opened Sunday.” more at link

And then… “One day after the unique discovery of an ancient marble reliquary, thought to contain the relics of St John the Baptist that archaeologists made on the island of St John near Sozopol, today the team has run into another finding. A mysterious stone box was unearthed from the same niche which contained the reliquary.  The box looks like a match box but is a bit larger. There are two inscriptions in Greek on it. The one reads: My Lord, help your servant, Toma and the other inscription, found on the other side of the box reads: Saint John. The stone container is full of soil and stirred archeologists in complicated reflections. “What we have discovered is strange and inexplicable. For now we do not know what it is, we are not sure about its purpose either. We can only guess that the stone box is a part of the reliquary…” source
 

Look a a map: I was struck by the dates and by the rapidity that Christianity had spread.

This spread is a miracle in itself. The changed lives resulting from its taking hold in cultures as divergent as Israel, Turkey, and the Baltics is also a miracle. It is a testament to the truth inherent in the Gospel, and the miracle of His death for our sins, the supreme miracle.

I am always surprised at people who deny Christianity’s factual beginnings, proved in history, by likening it to fables. Fables don’t spread so far and so fast. Fables don’t stick, 2000 years later.

“Christianity began spreading initially from Jerusalem, and then throughout the Near East, ultimately becoming the state religion of Armenia in 301 , of Ethiopia in 325, of Georgia in 337, and then the state religion of the Roman Empire in 380. Becoming common to all of Europe in the Middle Ages, it expanded throughout the world during the Age of Exploration. Christianity has thus become the world’s largest religion.”

Jesus saves!

Posted in end time, hail, prophecy, south dakona

Two POUND hailstones fall in South Dakota!

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here’s the story, amazing, and at the bottom, as always, the prophetic tie:

“Hail is one of the most damaging weather events capable of doing thousands of dollars worth of damage to homes and vehicles and utterly shredding crops. Last week in South Dakota the mother of all hail stones appears to have fallen – a beast weighing nearly two pounds and measuring 8 inches in diameter.”

World Record Hailstone Weighed In Vivian “A small South Dakota town is being recognized for a big find after last Friday’s storms. It was Friday afternoon when a line of thunderstorms fired up in central South Dakota. High winds, heavy rains and even a possible tornado rolled through the town of Vivian. But now days later, a hailstone picked up just moments after the storm is getting worldwide attention. The damage is proof that it wasn’t a typical South Dakota thunderstorm. Holes were punched through the top of buildings, and Les Scott will never forget what it sounded like. “A guy throwing bricks at the house and many of them and it was scary,” Scott said. Scott watched as massive hailstones pummeled the ground. Tuesday, the dents in the ground are still visible, some as large and deep as coffee cans. But when the hail stopped, a certain stone grabbed his attention.”

“I just happened to see this one fall and the only reason I went out and got it is because it has all these fingers sticking out of it and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’ So I thought I’d go get that one,” Scott said. Scott originally wanted to make a daiquiri out of the hail, but decided to contact the National Weather Service instead. Tuesday, they were in Vivian. They carefully took the stone from the freezer and placed it in a cooler with dry ice. The next stop was at the post office where the hail had a date with the federally certified scale. Moments later, the hailstone weighed in at 1.9375 pounds.”

“Officially, where records have been kept, this will be the U.S. record and world record for weight. So very impressive,” Mike Fowle of the National Weather Service said.  But the inspection of the new world record hail wasn’t done there. To ensure that the hailstone didn’t melt, it was then measured while inside a freezer at a local convenience store.  The hailstone is down to 17 inches around, but was measured just a few days ago at 18 and a half inches. That is another world record number.  “I didn’t think it was near that, but I’m glad I got it I guess. I’m just sad about the town of Vivian. I hope the insurance people help them out as much as they can because they need it,” Scott said.  As impressive as the size and weight are, it may have topped two pounds when it fell from the sky. While Scott placed it in the freezer, the power was out for six hours following the storm, and it likely melted a bit in that time.”

With all that damage I would have thought that the hail stones would with more than the 1.9 lbs and be bigger than 18 inches! They punched through roofs, made craters in the ground!

OK, so a world record hailstone was measured and verified. In the end time birth pangs, the pangs are ramping up. One of the indicators is frequency. More earthquakes, more often. More rain. More heat. More tornadoes. More, more, more. Another indicator are events that are “first ever”; rare, unexplained, or record-setting. Events that are obviously not a regular weather phenomenon and really cannot be explained away.

In the Language of God series I am writing, in “The Language of God: Hail” I explained how God speaks to us in some ways that are biblically shown to be His signature vocabulary and hail is one of them. It is threatened, used, prophesied and caused by God in many different situations in the bible. Military wins or losses, crop losses, phenomenon that affect one region but not another nearby were all done and also promised to be done in the future. I encourage you to read the piece for links to the verses. For now, I’ll refer to the plague of hail that is prophesied to come in Revelation:

From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible. (Rev 16:21)

The South Dakota news said the hail was likely larger when it initially fell. It was put in a freezer but the power out for 6 hours after the storm. Let’s say the hailstone was twice as big, 4 lbs and 36 inches around. That is still PUNY compared to 100 pound hailstones to come! Imagine the devastation then.

People! The LORD is speaking! Are we listening?

Posted in end time, prophecy, repent, the end is nigh, winepress

The winepress of His wrath

Posted on by elizabethprata

Jesus often spoke in agricultural parables and allusions, knowing that the farmers, wine producers, wheat gatherers etc would understand. Not much has changed since the ancient days in terms of how wine is made, olives are gathered, wheat is sifted. Today’s layperson, even a city dweller, can understand the simple comparisons He made with gathering wheat as living symbol of gathering His people.

There is one comparison He made which is simple but it is the most dreadful. It is the winepress of His wrath.

In old days the Israelites’ wine production was a major industry. Ancient wine presses have been discovered all over the Middle East, and in and around modern day Israel. The grapes would be gathered, and placed in a rectangular pit entered from a cleaned mosaic floor. The floor of the press would be stone, also washed. The trite picture of people stomping on grapes is not so trite: the gentleness of the underside of the foot would crush the grapes enough to release the juice but not crush the bitter seeds, releasing tannins into the wine. The juice would be allowed to run down a slough, through a filter made of leaves and thorn ranches. Seeds and twigs removed, the second pressing would then involve a press of stone, like the one below. Notice the trough running around the rim of the stone, to catch the juice.

Recently a Giant 1,400-year-old wine press discovered in southern Israel. Its size and unusual shape indicated to archaeologists that it was used for a major export operation. The press, unearthed during an excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority, is one of the largest ever discovered in Israel.

The LORD has said that He is long-suffering but His patience will come to an end. The world will not end, but most of life as we know it will end. Most will die. He will finally rectify the issue of sin and deliver His children from it. Deliverance will come! But it will be at a terrible price. Read these verses which describe an event that will literally come:

“The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:19-20).”

1600 stadia is 180 miles. MILES of flowing blood. Will your blood be among the flow?

Isaiah asks the LORD where He has been that His garments should be bloodied. God answers:

“I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing. (Isaiah 63:3)

And again in Revelation 19:15

“From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.”

He does this because the armies of the world are aligned to mow down the Jews, because they are assembled to fight Him, because they are rebellious and sinful and deserve Divine Justice. He does this to deliver the believers who dwell in such a dark time. He does this to avenge the martyrs who died in the Woman’s drunken orgy of massacre and became drunk with their blood. “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Revelation 17:6a). He does this because of the saints beheaded for the witness and testimony of the LORD and had not taken the mark. (Revelation 20:4)

Truly, it seems His wrath is nearly complete, it seems as though the moment of His Day is upon us. It seems the winepress is filling with sin and will be put to its prophetic use very shortly. The Day of the Lord is a time period, not just a day. During the entire time of The Day of the LORD He is at the same time sending out increasingly severe judgments upon the unbelieving while showing His fierce wrath and power so that those who rebel will come to Him. Many do come to Him, but still more will not.

The blessed hope is that if you believe NOW, during the age of Grace, you will not have to endure the terrible woes of the Tribulation nor see nor be within the winepress of His wrath. You will be raptured, meet Him in the air, and be led to heaven itself, where a place is being prepared for all believers. He loves you and made a way to dwell with Him forever. If you know and understand you are a sinner then you know and understand those sins will always disqualify you for heaven’s citizenship with the Holy God and LORD of Justice unless you plea for forgiveness and repent.

It sounds trite, but really, repent, for the end is nigh.

Posted in divorce, end time, prophecy

Divorce is a violent act

Posted on by elizabethprata

Divorce results in the parties’ violent actions as seen here:

Man allegedly forces ex-wife to swallow his wedding ring
“Police have charged Darryl Alan Roberts, 44, of Fairfield with domestic violence, saying he forced his ex-wife to swallow his wedding ring. Police say he joined his former wife and another woman for drinks June 23, but they left him at the Bangor pub after he became angry. Police told the Kennebec Journal that Roberts called his ex-wife 16 times, then showed up at her home, kicking in the door, punching her, threatening to kill her and making her swallow his wedding ring.”

In Israel, an ex-husband murdered his three young children. “Itay Ben Dror, who confessed to stabbing his three young children to death on Saturday, apparently lay next to their lifeless bodies for more than 10 hours. During his interrogation, the father said the murders were premeditated, adding that he purposely chose to commit them on his ex-wife’s birthday as an act of revenge after she refused to take him back. Of the situation prior to the killings, the authorities told her, “‘Don’t engage in a war in front of the children; leave the war for the court.'” The mother said she has nothing left to live for. She wants to see him behind bars. “Then I”ll join my children.”

I don’t mean that people act violently after a divorce because they are emotionally in turmoil. I mean that they act violently after a divorce because divorce itself is a violent act. Did you ever think of divorce as a violent act, and the parties’ violence afterwards being only a visible side-effect of that violence? In the secular world we know that divorces at best are almost without exception emotion-filled, bitter experiences. At worst, they are like the situation in Israel with Itay Ben Dror who killed his kids. The language in the article used the word “war.” And it IS a war, in the flesh on earth, for booty (furniture) and for territory (house) and for captives (children.)  It’s also a spiritual war in the celestial realms to directly attack one of the most important foundations Jesus laid down: the family. Let’s look at the language the bible uses:

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

Cleave is to adhere, cling, or stick fast. If you use wood glue and then after it dries, if you want to separate the two pieces that you made into one, you have to tear it apart by force, and they never come apart cleanly. There are splits in the wood, pits, damage.

The oft used phrase during marriage vows, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” comes from NIV Matthew 19:6. The World English Translation puts it this way: “So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.” Tear apart. We see in Genesis that the man and woman (not man-man nor woman-woman) who are to be married cleave, stick, become ONE flesh. Splitting that apart causes damage because to separate something that has become one, into two, is violent. It requires tearing, pulling, splitting, cutting.

Marriage is a covenant between three people: man, woman, God. A covenant is an eternal promise, a sacred thing. God discusses it here, “You ask, ‘Why?’ It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. (Malachi 2:14). Satan hates any and all Godly covenants. Therefore marriage and the family become prime targets for satan’s evil will to be done. Toppling the foundation of marriage and splitting apart a family through violence of divorce makes him positively gleeful. Still don’t think divorce is violent? Look at the picture of this house whose foundation has been washed away:

“Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.” (Luke 11:17)

Why is divorce so violent? Satan is behind it. God said: “I hate divorce…” (Malachi 2:16). What God loves, satan hates. Ruining marriage and family rises to the very top of satan’s evil to-do list

We know this end of the end time of anger and hatred and violence even in and among the family is coming. We were told: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). I wrote about the deeper meaning of the term ‘without natural affection’ here. It means without affection for those whom one would naturally feel affection for, like wives, husbands, children; those within the most intimate family unit.

Divorce begins because of sin, and sin is something we let into our lives. It is an open door. Wherever you live, city or country, if you leave your door standing wide open you are inviting thieves, varmints, and beasts. It is the same with sin. If you do not shut the door to it immediately, you are inviting demon thieves, demon varmints, and demon beasts into your soul.

Matthew Henry wrote “Men will find that their wrong conduct in their families springs from selfishness, which disregards the welfare and happiness of others, when opposed to their own passions and fancies. It is wearisome to God to hear people justify themselves in wicked practices. Those who think God can be a friend to sin, affront him, and deceive themselves. The scoffers said, Where is the God of judgment? but the day of the Lord will come.”

Christian husbands, now is the time of testing. Your marriage is and will be under continual attack. Cherish your wife as your help-meet, making the choice to love her even though stresses from this sinful world wash up against your marriage. Wives, love your husbands, build them up, and serve them with joy and grace, even as Jesus serves us. Make the choice to love him, even though hurts and wrongs pile up in your heart. Allow the Holy Spirit to wash those wrongs away because love keeps no record of wrongs. Tallying them is an open door to sin. Standing up for the covenant you have established with and for the Lord does MUCH these days to refresh the weary souls around you. Stand, husbands. Stand, wives. Divorce is a violent and ugly thing, Let satan not push you off your rock.

Posted in bp, end time, kalamazoo, oil, prophecy

Major oil leak causes state of emergency: 800,000 gallons spilled UPDATED

Posted on by elizabethprata

Sad news today from Lake Michigan/Kalamazoo River

Oil spill update: State of emergency declared as 800,000 gallons of leaked oil begins flowing through Kalamazoo County
Kalamazoo County officials declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon as more than 800,000 gallons of oil released into a creek began making its way downstream in the Kalamazoo River “I just came from Fort Custer and you can smell it now,” Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Pali Matyas said. “… It’s all rolling downhill and there are a lot of complications.”

This article reports, “U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Mich., said he discussed the spill Tuesday with President Barack Obama at the White House. He called the spill a “public health crisis,” and said he plans to hold hearings to examine the response. “The company was originally slow to respond and it is now clear that this is an emergency,” Schauer told reporters on a conference call.” Caption “A worker lifts oil-covered debris from the Kalamazoo River in Battle Creek Tuesday. A pungent odor is hanging over the Battle Creek area and the Kalamazoo River valley a day after 840,000 gallons of oil leaked into a creek that feeds into the river. The oil leaked Monday from a 30-inch pipeline that carries about 8 million gallons of oil per day from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ontario, in Canada. AP credit”

This MI situation is not minor. And of course the Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill isn’t minor either. In addition to these large and visible spills, there has been a spate of pipe breaks, leaks, and explosions spilling gas and oil onto land and water lately, from the upper Midwest to PA to TX to the Gulf. You can do a search on this blog for “explosions” and many results will come up, if you want to see the previous articles.

I have been thinking about today’s bible reading. He had led me to Obadiah. This is another of those chapters that have prophetic proclamations, then historical fulfillment of the events described, and are also waiting for its double fulfillment in the future. Here, Edom (Jordan) was a thorn in the side of Judah and Israel, often cheering on armies like the Assyrians when they battled the Israelites. More often, Edom allied with them, and worst, would pick and plunder the stuff that was left behind from previous plunderers. Edom laughed at Israel, and shouted self-confidently from their clefts in the rock (the great city of Petra). God saw this and made some promises in passages that not only spoke of retribution but exact retribution for exact deeds.

In verses 5-9 it describes thieves and pickers and robbers cleaning out Edom just as Edom had picked and robbed and stole from Judah. Even more clearly, God spelled it out in verse 12:

The Day of the LORD and the Future
“For the day of the LORD draws near on all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head.” (NASB)

These verses are cross-referenced to Habakkuk 2:8, “Because you have looted many nations, All the remainder of the peoples will loot you.” There is no escaping divine and exact retribution, It is repeated again in Jeremiah:

“Summon archers against Babylon, all those who draw the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.” (Jer 50:29) Perfect justice. Like-judgment for like-sin.

I was musing all day about what would be America’s fitting justice. Though we are not under judgment yet, because His wrath (judgment) has not begun and will not until the rapture and later Rev 6, we are still approaching that Day. The Day of the Lord is spoken of or referenced in almost every New Testament book. It is a time that most of the bible points to. That Day will come and America will be one of the nations to have perfect justice fall on her, as long-promised and as long-deserved. As we peek around the prophetic corner to that Day, perhaps we can already see some of the precursors and signs of what kind of judgment awaits the unbelieving left behind.

Would it not be fitting for a gluttonous and wasteful oil gobbling nation to be awash in oil that cannot be used? Would it not be fitting for us, who are so polluted by perversity and garbage, to have our lands become corrupted and trashed? I don’t know what the LORD has in mind for America nor any nation in particular in terms of exact judgment, but we KNOW that we will be repaid as we have done. And that is scary enough.

UPDATE

At 5:57 an update was posted regarding another spewing well…

Tug vessel hits abandoned gas well in Barataria Waterway
JEFFERSON, La. — The Coast Guard and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office are maintaining a two mile safety perimeter around a damaged wellhead in the Barataria Waterway south of New Orleans.
A mix of natural gas, contaminated water and light crude oil is spewing 100 feet in the air. According to the Coast Guard, the tug vessel Pere Ana C while pushing a dredge barge struck the abandoned wellhead around one Tuesday morning. “The issue for the region right now is we have gas coming out of an uncontrolled well head,” said Coast Guard Captain John Arenstam. “We don’t want to introduce into the region is an ignition source.”

Posted in end time, magnetosphere, prophecy, signs in the sun

Signs in the sun, moon, and stars: God’s powerful witness

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Sun has been acting strangely over the last two years. When it was supposed to have been active, it wasn’t. When it was supposed to have been quiet, it isn’t. Sunspots and solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME) are massive, or missing, but then produce flops for flares, or are small but produce unexpected ejections. It has zapped a satellite into a zombie, grown coronal holes so large it seems the sun itself would collapse, and the earth’s upper atmosphere (magnetosphere) itself is unexpectedly collapsing.

A Puzzling Collapse of Earth’s Upper Atmosphere
NASA-funded researchers are monitoring a big event in our planet’s atmosphere. High above Earth’s surface where the atmosphere meets space, a rarefied layer of gas called “the thermosphere” recently collapsed and now is rebounding again. “This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years,” says John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab, lead author of a paper announcing the finding in the June 19th issue of the Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). “It’s a Space Age record.” The collapse happened during the deep solar minimum of 2008-2009—a fact which comes as little surprise to researchers. The thermosphere always cools and contracts when solar activity is low. In this case, however, the magnitude of the collapse was two to three times greater than low solar activity could explain. “Something is going on that we do not understand,” says Emmert.”

Well, today spaceweather.com reports on the sun. Again.

“Something bright and active on the far side of the sun is about to turn toward Earth. Magnetic loops towering over the eastern limb herald its approach:”

“NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture during the early hours of July 26th. The bright glow revealed by SDO’s extreme ultraviolet camera comes from million-degree plasma trapped by overlying magnetic fields. A sunspot is likely at the bottom of it all. Or maybe two sunspots… NASA’s STEREO-B spacecraft is stationed over the sun’s eastern limb, and it sees a pair of active regions approaching single file. The one peeking over the limb now is actually the smaller of the two. Readers with solar telescopes should train their optics here.”

We are told that there will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars. (Luke 21:25).  We have seen strange and puzzling sun behavior, and that is according to the solar scientists. We have seen signs in the stars in the form of unusual meteors, comets, and planetary action in our galaxy and beyond. I mean, Jupiter lost a belt! And a flash so large appeared it stunned scientists, who do not know what it was! And just this weekend, we read, “NASA’s Deep Space Camera Locates Host of ‘Earths‘”. 700 new planets were discovered. Amazing!

Just about the only sign we have not seen is in the moon. But the other signs are there. We also know that in Revelation one of the plagues will be a sun so hot it causes men to combust with fire. Perhaps the magnetosphere will be burned off by then. Or perhaps God will simply cause it to happen instantly and supernaturally!

The age of Science has become a false god whom too many worship to the exclusion of the supernatural: an indwelling Holy Spirit ministry, a risen-from-the-dead, living Jesus, and a God who exists outside of time. These Three are supernatural, science cannot explain them. Science will never and cannot explain the Trinity. Soon, even today, events are occurring that science does not know how to deal with. A spate of deep-focus quakes? A sun that should be active but isn’t? Comets that appear out of nowhere? Soon the supposed scientific orderliness will disappear. Supernatural realms will become more visible and as they do, humans will be less and less able to cope with the lack of scientific evidence to give them answers. They will not find their answers because they looked to their god Science instead of Holy God.

He will extinguish the sun in a moment! He will create 100 pound hailstones! He will turn the sun back on, and turn it up to scorching heat! He will make the very stars fall! He will turn the sea to blood! These events are God pouring out His wrath and authority on an unbelieving world. He has the power of the universe in His hand, and science will fail men, along with economies, finances, food, infrastructure, (have you read about three dam failures lately?) all the things men put their trust in for insulation against sinful lives. Now is the time for God to show His power in stripping away that insulation and showing men their puniness in the face of a wrathful God who exerts authority over the sun and moon, and stars, and universes and men. Trust Jesus, and escape all these things.

Posted in end time, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy, tu'b'av

Dating the rapture is unwise and unbliblical

Posted on by elizabethprata
Remember, the date of the rapture is not known because it is not a date, it’s a number

It is wonderful to be eager for His call to us, and look forward to His coming. He said to be eager, and to look up when we see these signs begin to come to pass. (Luke 21:28)

Romans 11:25 Paul wrote that the church has a “full number”, and when that number is reached the Call will come for us to go up. “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” The word ‘full number’ is from pleroo in the Greek, meaning ‘finish (a period or task)’. The moment when we go is when the number has been reached.

So today is Tu’B’Av, a day some are looking to see as the rapture day. Tu’B’Av, of the 15th of July in the Jewish calendar was during the Second Temple period a popular holiday. It was and today still is a sort of Jewish Valentine’s day. In olden days it matched up with the end of the grape harvest and the beginning of the  wheat harvest. Many are looking for the rapture Monday because of this festival day. It is well to hope that Tu’B’Av is the day, and no one more than me wants to go. So while it is worthy to research the festivals, to try and match our possible rapture to this festival or that one is fruitless, because the day is not what God is basing the rapture on, it is the number, a number no one knows.

Some thought Pentecost would be the date. It came and went and we are still here. Some thought it would be Tisha’B’Av, the Jewish date of catastrophes and lamentations. That date came and went and we are still here. 1988 came and went and we are still here. Every other date came and went and we are still here. One day will be the day, but because the number has been reached.

Now, it is true that many, including me, feel a pressure, an undeniable and almost unbearable stretching like an elastic band pulled to its limit. This earth really feels that way to us, like the tension before the climax of the movie at a drawn-out moment. I feel the rapture is close. I sometimes think I can hear the indrawn breath of the Trumpet Blower! Today, tomorrow, next month. Soon. But I do not know what day it will be, and it is un-biblical to date it. The Lord has said repeatedly not to do that. When the Jews asked Him if this was the moment for their long-promised kingdom, He replied, “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.” (Acts 1:7) “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. (I Thessalonians 5:4).  “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.” (Matthew 24:42)

So could the rapture be tomorrow? Yes. But it may be Thursday. Or Christmas. Or any other day THE NUMBER has been reached. Don’t date the rapture, because Jesus said not to. And on a human level, it causes a build-up and then the inevitable let-down. He did not intend for the rapture to be a let-down, but to look for the Blessed Hope with all eagerness. So just say: