Category: prophecy

Posted in end time, israel, prophecy, saudi arabia

A game of diplomatic truth or dare: Saudi airspace and Israel strike on Iran

Posted on by elizabethprata

Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely among others have pointed to this summer as a tipping point in Middle East politics. He and others warn that the tensions are so great that it is likely, more than possible, and even probable that this summer will erupt into a hot war between Israel and other ME players. His statements came before the Gaza Flotilla occurred and enraged the world, isolating Israel and causing international meetings at highest levels, raising the tensions to the stratosphere. It was in this atmosphere that The Times of London reported with specificity that Saudi Arabia offered Israel air space to fly over if or when Israel chooses to strike Iran. Despite a hatred of Israel, Saudi Arabia fears a nuclear Iran even more. The June 12 story is here:

Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites
Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal. [D]efence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom’s air defences will return to full alert.

However, today comes the story that Saudi Arabia made no such offer and in fact refuses to allow Israel to fly over.

Saudi Arabia: We will not give Israel air corridor for Iran strike
Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf refutes Times of London report saying Saudi Arabia practiced standing down its anti-aircraft systems to allow an Israeli bomb run. Saudi Arabia would not allow Israeli bombers to pass through its airspace en route to a possible strike of Iran’s nuclear facilities, a member of the Saudi royal family said Saturday, denying an earlier Times of London report.

In addition, the second article says that “Passing over Iraq would require at least tacit consent to the raid from the United States, whose troops are occupying the country. So far, the Obama Administration has refused this.”

The prophesies are that there will be wars in the end times (Mathew 24) and that Damascus will be destroyed into a heap of ruins (Isaiah 17:1), that Gog-Magog coalition will attack Israel. (Ezekiel 38-39). The wars will occur, at what time we do not know and in what order is not certain. However, they will occur. That Jerusalem is a cup of trembling around which all the world reels is happening just as Zechariah 12:2 predicted, and the drumbeats of diplomacy, crossing and double-crossing rumors and facts is rampant and only add to general confusion across the globe that the Tribulation will multiply.

Posted in atheism, end time, falling away, prophecy

Apostasy = Atheism Lite

Posted on by elizabethprata

There’s no such thing as an ex-Christian. Look at 1 John-

“They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” (1 John 2:19)

John is saying here that people who ‘backslide’ and then fall away from the faith entirely, a symptom of the end times by the way, never really were saved to begin with. “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him,” (Titus 1:15).

For many professing “ex-Christians”, it starts with apostasy, something Paul said there would be plenty of in the last days.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. (1 Tim 4:1-3)

And before the person started falling away, in came sneaky heresies they began listening to:

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. (2 Peter 2:1)

For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:4)

So the progression is: profess Christ by mouth… but since there was no visible fruit to show the state of grace they were claiming on the inside, they were never really saved; fail to walk closely with Jesus by procrastinating in discipleship, bible study, prayer, and/or worship, furthering the distance between themselves and Jesus; listen to or promote destructive heresies that either they knowingly or unknowingly begin to believe, start doubting Christ’s sufficiency; doubt more, and then slide to full blown renunciation and end up in a state of atheism. Peter says “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” (2 Peter 2:20)

Notice the words that both Jude and Peter use to describe the heresies what will infiltrate the church in the last days; “secretly” and “crept in”. The heresies don’t come into the church by way of aggressive men bellowing a ‘new doctrine’ to the delight of followers who joyfully jump their pews and run out the door to his new church. They come sneakily, secretly, subtly. And no wonder, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made…” (Genesis 3:1) so satan isn’t going to capture hearts with bellicose attitudes or flagrantly detectable bad doctrine. Many of the preachers and teachers will not even openly pronounce their heresies, they will be secret within their heart and only after a while, introduced slyly. Jude’s words “crept in” also indicate something that also isn’t readily detectable and is subtle at the start.

These teachers will have a big, white smile, open their lecture with a warm joke, and tell you that Jesus was a good, moral teacher and that you deserve the best life now. They will never tell you that your best life is later and that Jesus didn’t come to be a moral leader but to seek and save the lost- And that you are lost. Others will tell you that we are all one universal consciousness, we are our own gods, and then, they will give you a car. They will tell you that if you believe in Jesus, He will make your life better, while you are seeking Him from comfy ampitheatre watching a techno-sermon with a cappuccino in your hand. Seeker-sensitive churches are false on its premise because in Romans we learn that no one seeks God.

The end result of a Christian in name only – that is, one who claimed Jesus but never really believed – and is one who is at risk of being tempted by destructive heresies, and ultimately of apostasy. What comes next is atheism.

Atheism is a natural cul-de-sac in the road away from the cross. Gotquestions.org writes:

“At the same time, it takes just as much faith to believe in atheism. To make the absolute statement “God does not exist” is to make a claim of knowing absolutely everything there is to know about everything and of having been everywhere in the universe and having witnessed everything there is to be seen. [I]t cannot be proven that God does not exist. It takes just as much faith to be an atheist as it does to be a theist.”

Which, I suspect, could be one of the reasons Peter said it makes a person worse off from what they were before. Whereas a person before was a perhaps being drawn by the Spirit, after apostasy settles in and atheism rears its head, a person is well and truly now in the dangerous pits of despair, misplacing their burgeoning faith in Something for a faith in Nothing that will last forever.

An interesting article appeared in Maine Family Policy Council’s online publication, The Record:

“While there may be a diversity of opinion about the nature of God, no one in state government has stepped forward to doubt His existence. Atheism remains a strong taboo in political circles, in part because of the widely-held belief that faith in God is the mainstay of civil society. Eight state constitutions explicitly forbid atheists from holding public office. Tennessee’s state constitution gives the clearest statement in this regard:”

“No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.”

“The controversial belief that atheists are untrustworthy has ancient roots. Plato wrote that disbelief arises from either sensuality, or from a conceited belief in one’s own wisdom. He warned that those who do evil deeds think one of three things: First, that god does not exist; second, that if god does exist, He does not care what people do; and third, that god can be otherwise appeased by good deeds.”

“The opinion of John Locke was also severe with regard to non-believers in public office. Locke wrote that atheism undermines the foundations of civil society. “They are not at all to be tolerated who deny the being of a God. Promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist. The taking away of God, though but even in thought, dissolves all.” “

“For centuries, Christian doctrine held that not only atheists, but irreligious people in general, could not be morally good. To quote one expert in Christian ethics: “Therefore, the irreligious man is not a morally good man since he neglects to perform his essential duties to God. Besides, a man who shuns his duties to God will be prone likewise to shun his duties to his fellow man.” “

It all starts with destructive heresies, ungodly men creeping in unnoticed. And why aren’t they noticed? Because Christians today all too often fail to be familiar with the real thing, foregoing bible study, quiet time, prayers, and worship, so that when the counterfeit shows up, being only subtly different from the Truth, it goes unnoticed. What today’s Christian needs is larger doses of the above, not smaller. As times get tougher and stress makes a person weary, as work loads increase and family strife abounds, people fall away from the paving stones of a faith that lead toward the cross. This process separates the Christians In Name Only from the true believers. Are you worried about your salvation? Are you unsure? Has there been no visible fruit in your life for a while? You are at risk. Repent. Take it to the cross, and make sure you are saved. Apostasy is a ‘subtil’ thing, as subtle as satan. Has he crept into your heart?

Posted in end time, holy, prophecy

The enlarging scale of the disasters, sinners in the hands of an angry God

Posted on by elizabethprata

It is clear from my last post, that the scale of the disasters about to be unleashed upon us are outside the human capacity to comprehend them. As stated in the previous entry, “Current engineering technology cannot contain gas that is pressurized to 100,000 psi” just so the human heart and mind cannot contain the images of the coming destruction wrought from a Holy God.

Images of things that could happen:

“gas gusher will surge upwards through miles of ancient sedimentary rock—layer after layer—past the oil reservoir. It will explode upwards propelled by 50 tons psi, burst through the cracks and fissures of the compromised sea floor, and rupture miles of ocean bottom with one titanic explosion. The burgeoning toxic gas cloud will surface, killing everything it touches, and set off a supersonic tsunami with the wave traveling somewhere between 400 to 600 miles per hour.”

Images that WILL happen like this:

“In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’ ” (Ezekiel 38:19-23)

and like this:

“Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done’, And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. (75 pounds) Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.” (Rev. 16:17-21)

But before you tune out, saying “I can’t handle this anymore,” I offer two thoughts. First, is that we are Sinners in the time of an Angry God. That God is making Himself visible and present on the world is becoming obvious to most. That the scale of current disasters are reaching beyond our ability to respond to them is also obvious. That the potential for imminent destructive problems that also stretch beyond our ability to solve them, or even react, is obvious. We are in the Time when He is beginning to “show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 36 23)

He will show Himself holy before the people in the Gog Magog war and He is that process is now visible. Of course it is difficult to comprehend the times. In our flesh, even saved and sanctified, we can’t comprehend a Holy God. Isaiah 6:5 in the Throne room, “And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.Then I said “Woe is me, for I am ruined Because I am a man of unclean lips And I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” He immediately fell down in despair! The word ruined (or ‘undone’ in other translations) means utterly devastated, brought to silence, cut off. One glimpse and he was in the throes of woe! No wonder in our tiny glimpses of His Holiness as He makes Himself visible on earth, we are also undone!

John, when shown the throne room in Revelation 5:1-4, “When I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” When John says he wept “much” the Greek word is abundantly and long and earnestly and greatly.

We are watching the rumblings of the Holy God making Himself known and it is a great and humbling and awesome thing. “For [when] the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:17 italics mine) Be awed. Do not be scared. If you are saved by the blood of Jesus, He sees you equal in His eyes, Co-heir to all creation. He will bring us out and we will be glorified and then we will be able to comprehend His Mightiness as He continues to hold the world’s sinners in His Angry Hands.

But what of the unsaved? Here is the second thought: if a crashing helicopter was about fall on your friend, wouldn’t you scream for him to move him? If a train was about to run into a car, wouldn’t you be honking your horn in a frenzy? The video of the unsuspecting tsunami guy shows the people taking the video screamed their lungs out to alert the man, who was, moments later, swept away by a wave he never saw coming. But they tried. They tried. Are you trying to alert people as to the wave that is coming?

Tell the Gospel for all you’re worth, Christian! Sinners falling into the hands of an angry God is an eternal, everlastingly painful thing. We see what’s coming, TELL OTHERS. And fear not. He is Holy and He is coming!

Posted in disaster kill millions, end time, gulf of mexico, methane, prophecy

How the Gulf disaster could kill millions

Posted on by elizabethprata

In news reports today, we are discovering how violent methane is and how VERY much of it there is in the Gulf. And BP knew it.

“It is an overlooked danger in oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast amounts of natural gas that could pose a serious threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile ecosystem. The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.” “This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history,” Kessler said.”

Above, Discoverer Enterprise methane flare. photo source/credit
However, while the AP article looks at the devastating environmental aspects of the spill, this scientifically based article reveals the greater danger.

How the Gulf Oil Disaster Could Kill Millions
“Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—something far worse than the BP oil gusher. Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous. What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas. Location of Deepwater Horizon oil rig was criticized more than 12 months ago some geologists rang the warning bell that the Deepwater Horizon exploratory rig might have been erected directly over a huge underground reservoir of methane. Documents from several years ago indicate that the subterranean geologic formation may contain the presence of a huge methane deposit. None other than the engineer who helped lead the team to snuff the Gulf oil fires set by Saddam Hussein to slow the advance of American troops has stated that a huge underground lake of methane gas—compressed by a pressure of 100,000 pounds per square inch (psi)—could be released by BP’s drilling effort to obtain the oil deposit. Current engineering technology cannot contain gas that is pressurized to 100,000 psi.”

But wait…it gets worse. Much worse.

“The ultimate Gulf disaster, however, would make even those historical horrors pale by comparison. If the huge methane bubble breaches the seabed, it will erupt with an explosive fury similar to that experienced during the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in the Pacific Northwest. A gas gusher will surge upwards through miles of ancient sedimentary rock—layer after layer—past the oil reservoir. It will explode upwards propelled by 50 tons psi, burst through the cracks and fissures of the compromised sea floor, and rupture miles of ocean bottom with one titanic explosion. The burgeoning toxic gas cloud will surface, killing everything it touches, and set off a supersonic tsunami with the wave traveling somewhere between 400 to 600 miles per hour.”

The result would be that

“While the entire Gulf coastline is vulnerable, the state most exposed to the fury of a supersonic wave towering 100 feet or more is Florida. The Sunshine State only averages about 6 inches above sea level. A supersonic tsunami would literally sweep away everything from Miami to the panhandle in a matter of minutes. Loss of human life would be virtually instantaneous and measured in the millions. Of course the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and southern region of Georgia—a state with no Gulf coastline—would also experience tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of casualties…”

This is what could happen. Not to say that it will happen. However, the geologists who have studied this area warned that the methane deposit under where BP planned to drill was too unstable and contained larger than normal quantities of methane. That is a fact. So it is also a fact that the BP well exploded. It is a fact that the sea floor is cracked and ruptured. It is a fact according to the AP article that methane is leaking at a rate at which the BP containment ships cannot keep up with burning it and the gas is spilling into the gulf, leaving huge dead zones. Pray to God that the methane in the gulf, either in the water or under the unstable sea floor, doesn’t explode, My mind can’t conceive of the devastation ensuing from such a disaster. Is judgment about to be rendered unto this sinful nation?

Posted in crack in the earth, end time, mexico explosion, prophecy, sinkholes

Mexico explosion damages 400 homes, causes mile-long crack

Posted on by elizabethprata

On June 10 I posted Is the earth cracking up? On June 13 I did a follow up, with fresh news and additional scriptures. If we start with the end and work backward it goes like this: from Zechariah 14:4-6 and Isaiah 24 we know that during the Tribulation (the last 7 years of this age on earth) the earth’s physical features undergo a dramatic change. Mt. Olives splits in two and a river gushes from it. The earth reels like a drunkard. In Revelation 16:19-20 we know that Earthquakes happen that are so large the islands sink and the mountains crumble. The earth’s geologic features are remade into something unrecognizable.

We also know from the period just prior to the Tribulation, known as the end time, that there will be earthquakes and roaring seas as Jesus describes in Luke 21:25. In Matthew 24:6-7 it describes wars (plural) and we know that wars scar the earth.

Lately there have been an unusual number of unexpected underground failures. Breaks in underground pipes, oil leaks, sinkholes, more sinkholes wreaking havoc in China and Canada, mine shaft collapses, methane explosions at natural gas rigs, and of course the sea floor break under the BP oil well in the Gulf. Many. A lot. There have been so many sinkholes in China that the population is spooked and just a rumor of a sinkhole or an earthquake causes them to sleep outside for the night. The previous two entries have more source news items at the links above.

Here is another example of a sinkhole, again, in China. “June 15, 2010: A resident throws a stone into a sinkhole near Qingquan primary school in Dachegnqiao, China. The hole, 492 feet wide and 164 feet deep, has been growing since it first appeared in January and has destroyed 20 houses so far. No casualties have been reported, and the reason for the appearance of the hole remains unclear. Reuters” source

It is possible that the earth’s coming changes have begun. This is what I personally believe. The recent pattern of earth cracks is too noticeable not to wonder this and put the dots together… After all, the earth changes have to begin sometime. Here is another disaster to illustrate the point. In south-central Mexico last night an underground explosion ripped a crack in the earth that was a mile long and twenty feet deep! Note, the headline link is to the original Spanish article. Here’s a link to a google translation—

Underground explosion in Mexico damages 400 houses
This afternoon an explosion occurred inside the city dump, which caused damage to at least 400 homes located in 15 streets, Mayor Jesus Tolentino Roman Bojorquez. The mayor explained that the incident could be provided by a combination of methane gas produced by decomposing garbage, and a possible softening of the final disposal site is located in the neighborhood Tlatel Xochitenco. Garbage collectors have even made a crack arising from the explosion which has a length of up to one kilometer, a depth of six to seven meters and two meters wide…

It seems that events are cascading faster and faster and waxing worse and worse. This is also predicted. Jesus said that the end time events would be as birth pangs, and when a woman gives birth the contractions accelerate in potency and pain until the birth of the new life. The guys at Rapture Ready put it this way:

Birth pangs, in terms of Bible Prophecy, refers to certain convulsive geopolitical, geophysical, astrophysical and world-wide socio-economic events and issues scheduled to occur in the time leading up to Jesus Christ’s Second Advent (second coming). These are likened to the contractions experienced by a woman about to give birth, with those episodes increasing with frequency and intensity. Jesus’ foretelling of these birth pangs use the word “sorrows,” in His Olivet Discourse on end time things to come. (Matt. 24:3-8)

Now is the time to examine your sins and see them for what they are: rebellion against a Holy God which will result in permanent separation from Him until and unless you accept the remedy for it. Fortunately that remedy is free, because Jesus paid the price for our sins. Justice has been satisfied and you are given a pardon from the High Judge! Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but through Him. (John 14:6). If you are sincerely sorry for your sins and want to apologize to Jesus, and then turn away from your sins, then tell Him! (confess and repent) He will forgive you. He is THAT GOOD!

Posted in end time, prophecy, signs, statue struck by lightning, touchdown Jesus

The language of God: Lightning strikes Touchdown Jesus/UPDATE

Posted on by elizabethprata

UPDATE: Just as I finished and uploaded this essay about God using lightning, this occurs:

“Oil collection on the gulf is halted due to fire aboard containment vessel. Lightning hit it.”
“A bolt of lightning struck the ship capturing oil from the blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, igniting a fire that halted containment efforts in another setback for the embattled company in its nearly two-month struggle to stop the spill, the company said. The fire was quickly extinguished and no one was injured. BP said it hopes to resume containing oil from the well sometime Tuesday afternoon.”
———————————————————————

In the previous two entries to this series, we examined scriptures that illustrated how and when God uses His signature events, hail and fire/brimstone to judge, to warn, or to speak to His people. Since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and since the bible prophesies future events with hail, brimstone, and lightning (among other events) it’s a good idea to get a biblical basis for how and when He may be using those phenomena now, and whether they are signs.

The Language of God: Hail
The Language of God: Fire and Brimstone

Today we are looking at lightning. A keyword search for the word lightning yields about 55 results. Here are a few:

Psalm 18:14 – He shot his arrows and scattered [the enemies], great bolts of lightning and routed them.
2 Samuel 22:13 – Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth.
Job 36:32 – He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.
Job 37:3 – He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth.
Daniel 10:6 – His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
Matthew 24:27 – For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 28:3 – His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow
Revelation 8:5 – Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

It is clear that lightning is part of God’s vocabulary. He looks like lightning, He causes lightning, and He hurls lightning. He uses it to vanquish enemies, to inspire awe, and to announce His coming.

There’s a story this week of a tragedy atop a mountain in North Carolina. A man and woman in love were hiking. When they got to the top of the mountain, they stopped to admire the view. Though cloudy and a bit thundery, it was gorgeous nonetheless. Unbeknown to the woman, the man had a ring in his pocket and was going to propose. Very much in love, he watched her as she took in her surroundings. Turning to him, she said, “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Those were the last words she spoke.

Waking up a few minutes later on his back, the soles of his feet smoking, he saw his beloved laying on the ground a few feet away. She was dead. A lightning bolt had struck them both and though the man performed CPR for many minutes, she could not be revived. In despair, he put the ring on his beloved’s finger and said his goodbyes.

Did this incident have a direct Divine Cause? Did God hurl a lightning bolt to earth and cause this girl’s death? Let’s look to the bible for that answer.

In this day and “tolerant” age, bible students and Christians in general like to claim that God is all-loving and would never hurt a flea. This claim is usually preceded by the claim that there is no hell and a loving God would never send any of His children there. Aside from the fact that hell exists to hold all unforgiven sinners of all eternity and for all eternity, and that God IS loving, let’s take a look at the uncomfortable fact of some of His direct interventions.

“Then Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD killed him. (Genesis 38:6).”

Yes, that’s my reaction, too. How about this, just a few verses later: “The next brother in law to marry Tamar also was wicked, and four verses later, we see again, “And the thing which he did displeased the LORD; therefore He killed him also.” In 2 Samuel 6:7, Uzzah touched the Holy ark of God, and “Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.” The bible does not record exactly how these were killed, but in in 2 Samuel God routed whole armies using thunder, rain, and lightning.

It is clear that in God’s inestimable perfection, He sees fit to directly cause the death of one or more people at a time. It seems harsh, but it speaks more to man’s disobedience. The people were told how to carry the Ark, which was the visible throne of God and contains the presence of God between the angels’ wings (Lev. 16:2). It speaks to God’s holiness. The New Testament incident of Ananias and Sapphira is proof that it isn’t “just the Old testament God” who takes things so very seriously. The pair lied directly to the Holy Spirit and were killed because of it and for a lesson in how hypocrisy infiltrating the church from the inside can cause tremendous damage.

So do I think that the girl on the mountain was directly killed by God? I don’t purport to know the mind of God but I do know in His consistency that He tells us beforehand of His expectations. In the most severe abridgment of his expectations, precepts, laws, or commands, He directly intervenes.

In the unfortunate case of the girl who died, I think the truism that “lightning seeks the ground” is brought to bear here, rather than conclude whole-heartedly that it was any direct smiting or was a sign in particular. Whatever the case of it may be, we can learn from what happened to her.

Your death could come at any moment, and at that moment, it will be too late to decide for Jesus. Your lack of decision will have been the decision. As the end of the age draws near, now every time I hear of a death, I can’t help but wonder if that person was saved or not. As the girl on the mountain admired the beauty of creation, did she know her creator? More importantly, did she know her Savior? Do you?

Lightning is in the news today in the mid-section of the nation. The King of Kings statue located at Solid Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. The statue is 62 feet high, presents only Jesus’s torso with arms upraised, causing the aptness of the nickname “Touchdown Jesus” to be all too ruefully honest. The statue is in a baptismal pool and at night, is lit from underneath from multi-colored lights. It is gaudy and not to my liking, and not to many of the locals’ either: 75% of those polled said it was in bad taste and reflected poorly on the city of Monroe.

“Monroe firefighters said the lightning strike set the statue on fire around 11:15 p.m. Monday. Firefighters said at their tallest, the flames reached 100 feet. The sculpture, which was 62 feet tall, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus by some because of the way his arms were raised. Church members said the lightning strike and destructive fire stunned them, many thought it was a sign they need to pay attention to. Kevin Jones said, “I’m thinking it’s a sign from Jesus that we need to learn something, as Christians, as a whole, we’re not doing something right.” Ashley Morgan said, “It scares me, it really does, I think about what that symbolizes, to me that’s a sign and not a good one.” The steeple wasn’t touched. Nor was the cell phone tower next door.

The statue reminded me of the Buddy Jesus from the movie Dogma, a sarcastic and mocking look at the ‘loopholes’ in Catholicism, and the alleged farcical nature of religion in general. Avowed atheist George Carlin is the actor playing a Bishop who bemoans the depressing-ness of the crucifix image, and creates a new campaign, “Catholicism Wow!” with a ‘friendlier’ Jesus as a newly branded image of the Deity.

The two images, Buddy Jesus and Touchdown Jesus are similar in nature, though I am sure they were not intended to be, at least not on the part of Solid Rock Church. In any case, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” (Gal 6:7)

Some may say that the lightning struck because the Touchdown Jesus was an idol. But the definition of idol is “worship of any cult image, idea, or object, as opposed to the worship of a monotheistic God. It is considered a major sin in the Abrahamic religions. Which images, ideas, and objects, constitute idolatry, and which constitute reasonable worship, is a matter of contention…” Were they engaging in reasonable worship? It is matter of opinion. Solid Rock Church’s website states that they serve and worship a resurrected Jesus from a biblical standpoint, so the statue, gaudy as it is, may or may not be considered an idol (at least on the surface with the definition).

We look to the bible for descriptions of and uses of lightning in God’s work. That it is part of His vocabulary is fact. That individual incidences, at least in the past, of God smiting individuals has occurred is also a fact. However, we can never be sure of particular incidences and should remain cautious in ascribing Divine hands at work for any given circumstance. That the girl’s sudden death atop the mountain moves us to consider our own eternal destination in the face of the fleetingness of life is a good thing. That the woman in the article at Solid Rock Church wonders if this is a sign from God and if she or the church should change their ways is also a good thing. Taking stock of your standing with God is never a pointless exercise.

I advise doing a keyword search of an online bible to see how and where lightning is used for a sign to the people. I use biblecc, ad biblegateway. We know that in the very near future, Revelation 8:5 says that lighting will occur as a direct order from God: “Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.” And also in Revelation 11:19 –  “And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.” And again in Revelation 4:5 – “[The Throne and Worship of the Creator ] Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God;”

Lightning is part of God’s vocabulary and He will be speaking it very soon. Are you listening?

Posted in bp, end time, gulf of mexico, hurricane, nations in dismay, prophecy, roaring and tossing of seas

Hurricane forming? Nations in dismay with perplexity: a study on the Gulf Oil leak and prophecy

Posted on by elizabethprata

“There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, (Luke 21:25 NASB)

From the Weather Underground Blog, we learn that a tropical wave is forming in the Atlantic. Even more interestingly, we learn that it is unusual so early in the season. “An unusually large and well-developed African tropical wave for so early in the season has developed midway between the coast of Africa and South America.” It is called 92L. With the BP Oil leak continuing unabated, actually it’s getting worse, all eyes are upon the weather forecasters who track low pressure systems in the Atlantic and the Gulf. Yesterday low pressure system 92L that popped up was forecasted to have a 20% chance of turning into a tropical depression. Then its chances were upped to 30% in the same day and upped again and again, until by the end of the day yesterday, the system had a high percentage of forming into a hurricane. The forecasted track is straight into the Gulf.

In looking at the signs Jesus said would come upon us in the end time, we look at things that are out of normal cycles. Hurricanes in the Gulf are not abnormal. One forming so early and so well, is. Further, we see additional anomalies in this season’s hurricane cycle. Again from the Wunderground blog,

“[S]ea surface temperatures (SSTs) underneath 92L are an extremely high 28 – 30°C, which is warmer than the temperatures reached during the peak of hurricane season last year, in August – September. In fact, with summer not even here, and three more months of heating remaining until we reach peak SSTs in the Atlantic, ocean temperatures across the entire Caribbean and waters between Africa and the Lesser Antilles are about the same as they were during the peak week for water temperatures in 2009 (mid-September.)”

Grasp that for a moment: sea surface temperatures (which drive hurricane formation) are HOT, hotter than ever before and hotter than they should be at this point in the season.

It is heartbreaking to wonder about the roiling seas churning all that oil, dispersant, hydrogen sulfide and benzene onto the peoples along the Gulf and further inland. It also brings to mind the scripture from Luke 21:25 above, “…dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves,”

First, note that it is nations, plural. Nations are in dismay at the roaring of the sea. The sea is singular. Why would nations around the world be in anguish over roaring waves on a sea??

The word perplexity is known to us. It commonly means trouble or confusion, and it is used throughout the bible. So again we wonder,  why should nations be dismayed and confused at the roaring of the sea and waves? Tropical storms, typhoons, tsunamis and hurricanes are known to us and though they do strike terror, why perplexity? However, in looking at the Greek, this particular word for perplexity is “aporia” and it is used only once. Since every word in the bible is carefully chosen by God and inspired to the writer by the Holy Spirit, this one-time use bears closer looking into.

The Greek word origin of perplexity is: aporia, a (state of) quandary — perplexity, impasse; lack of resources; puzzlement; doubt; confusion. This state of being is different from a regular kind of confusion, which typically is individual anyway, “nations” don’t usually display confusion. And the word for dismay is actually anguish. Now, what could whole nations be in a quandary about, totally at a loss over, at an impasse through, and anguished from when the sea roars and tosses?

BP oil spill.

Aporia, the Greek word used in this verse for perplexity, is further defined from the alpha (as a neg. prefix) and poros (a way, resource) and it means to be without resources, to be in straits, to be left wanting, to be embarrassed, to be in doubt, not to know which way to turn. It is a Greek term for a difficulty or puzzle (literally, “with no pathway”).

We’ve watched BP try and try and try and fail to find a way to solve this problem on the sea. We’ve watched Resident Obama appear to try to find a way to solve this in meeting with the British Prime Minister. The State Department confirms there has been an international outreach on the BP oil spill. It is of concern to nations, and they are in perplexity over it and in anguish because of it. This situation affects the many nations, may soon affect a third of the seas, and we know that eventually all the oceans die.

Based on prayer, study and the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, I believe the verse in Luke portending roaring seas and anguish of nations could apply in part or in whole to any and all upcoming storms in the Gulf of Mexico and the BP oil spill, which will further deepen as depicted in Revelation when a third of the seas become poisoned, and at the end of this age when all the seas die. Is the Gulf oil issue the beginning? It seems that it well could be … Lord, come quickly!

Posted in earth cracking up, earthquakes, end time, katla, prophecy

Is the earth cracking up? Follow-up, because the cracking continues and Isaiah predicts it

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’d mentioned in a post I made on June 10 that the spate of mine collapses, oil and gas explosions, and sinkholes, never mind the documented increase in earthquake and volcano activity may be related. It seems to me that the earth feels like it is cracking up. At least, shifting in some dramatic way. I’d said, ” The earth is changing…or moving…or cracking…or something. We have a God who promised to use events in the end time to speak of His Holy power and the need for sinners to repent. We have an earth that has been prophesied to be renewed, from the ground up. In understanding where we are in the end time, I personally believe that the news related to explosions from the earth’s crust and ruptures are crustal shifts presaging the more massive shifts to come.” Those massive shifts culminate in an event that is described in Revelation 16:18-20. Isaiah 24 also speaks to the earth’s cracking open, read to the bottom for those proof-verses.

Today another sinkhole has opened in China. In the original article linked above, I noted that the Chinese have been fearing the sudden outbreak of sinkhole activity lately but today’s article states that there have been 35 since April. That is a high amount of activity if you ask me.

“THIS motorist had a lucky escape when his car almost completely disappeared into a massive pothole. The vehicle came to a screeching halt on a busy road when the sinkhole suddenly appeared in China’s Nanchang City in Jiangxi Province. The force of the accident was enough to cause the car’s airbags to deploy and its bonnet was left wedged into the tarmac. Dozens of sinkholes have been discovered across the country – 35 have appeared since April. It comes after a three-storey building was swallowed by an even bigger sinkhole in Guatemala last month. Sinkholes are formed when surface water dissolves bedrock and the flow continues to erode material underground to form caverns. The crust of earth left on the surface eventually collapses “swallowing” everything on top of it.”

In other interesting underground news, a pipeline unexpectedly broke in Salt Lake City, Utah, spilling 500 barrels into a protected creek and water system. Officials are perplexed as to the reason the pipe broke. The oil is still leaking and the main concern at this point is to prevent the oil from reaching Great Salt Lake.

Oil sits on the shore of a pond in Liberty Park. (G. Frey/Getty Images)

And just today, another mine collapse kills one, this time in Ukraine. In America, the disasters have a human toll behind them. As Tom O’Connor writes for the Kansas City.Com, “Amid the horrific scenes of the BP oil spill, we should not neglect the fact that 11 workers died on the rig when it exploded April 20. Nor should we neglect the daily carnage that workers suffer on the job in America. It’s been a very bad couple of months for worker safety: Seven dead in Washington following the explosion of the Tesoro refinery. Six dead in Connecticut in the Kleen Energy power plant explosion. Twenty-nine dead in West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch Mine disaster. And 11 dead in the Gulf of Mexico oil rig collapse.”

People are becoming increasingly aware of the malfeasance of corporations doing business in the earth at the expense of the toll on human life. Neglected inspections, payoffs, wink wink attitudes toward safety and/or stewardship of the earth’s assets. This greed at the expense of human lives and our quality of life is another condition we are told will exist in spades in the Tribulation:
Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. (James 5:4-6)

Isaiah said that the “earth is also defiled under its inhabitants” and we see from recent events how deeply we have defiled it, with our sin and with our waste. And even as I write this, a 7.5 earthquake happened yesterday in Indonesia, and was followed up by another one off Japan, a 6.1 magnitude. Volcano Katla in Iceland, a potentially disruptive volcano, which has historically erupted following the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull (which first erupted April 14). Katla awoke suddenly yesterday and has evidenced 11 earthquakes in 24 hours. Katla is ten times more powerful than Eyja and has the potential to cause tremendous climate change, as in, winter all year long for years at a time.

What exactly is going on, only God knows. We do know what he has shared with us from His word, in His grace and in His mercy, to warn us in advance: things will get a lot worse. Things won’t work any more, and I’m not talking about man-made things like pipes and sewers and electricity etc; I am saying that the sun won’t work. The Earth won’t work. The moon won’t work. The oceans will fail. These things will happen, and can only be caused by the supernatural power of God Himself. It happened before, Joshua saw that the earth stood still and the moon stood still. And God will do it again, cause changes in the earth and the other planetary bodies that only He can do. Has that change begun? Is the earth cracking? Isaiah prophesies that IT WILL crack entirely open.

Isaiah 24 speaks to the earth’s reeling and cracking in several places. The 24th chapter speaks to “The Last Times of the World in General, and of Judah and the Church in Particular:”

Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste, Distorts its surface, And scatters abroad its inhabitants. (Is 24:1)

The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, Because they have transgressed the laws, Changed the ordinance, Broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, (Is 24:5-6)

And the foundations of the earth are shaken. The earth is violently broken, The earth is split open, The earth is shaken exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, And shall totter like a hut; (Isaiah 18b-20)

The earth will crack up. Has that cracking begun? In my opinion, yes. However, as a saved Christian, that question for me is academic one. I am secure in the knowledge of His mercy and saving grace, extended to me through His Son. No man comes to the Father except by Jesus, and I have entered that door. He received me and I am still on my knees in gratitude. At the appropriate moment, He is coming to gather His own to His bosom so that we may be where he is, always and forevermore. That is known in the bible as the rapture and it is found in the books of 1 Cor. 15:35-53 and in 1 Thes. 4:16-18. I do not have to worry about being on a planet that is cracking up, reeling to and fro like a drunkard. You don’t have to worry, either, if you acknowledge that you are a sinner, and turn away from your sins to Jesus as your Savior and Lord! Go through that door, prayer is the beginning. He is waiting with open arms!

Posted in abraham, end time, prophecy, remember lot's wife

Abraham’s altars and the lesson for us

Posted on by elizabethprata

Genesis is such an amazing book of the bible. In re-reading Genesis 12, I was again astounded by the depth and complexity of human history and our relationship with God. Gen. 12 is the famous chapter in which God called Abram (later name changed to Abraham) and made a significant promise:

I will make you a great nation; … I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 12:2a & 3a)

You can be sure that the promise of God is solid, and that we are seeing the curse of nations who curse Israel beginning before our eyes. In verse 7 of Genesis 12, “Then the LORD appeared to Abram,” God appeared to Abraham. In my interpretation he appeared as the Son (Jesus said in John 8:58,”Before Abraham was, I AM.” He was quoting God speaking to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3:14). God appeared to Abram! Think on that for a moment. The El-Shaddai, the I AM, the ALMIGHTY, appeared to a man, walked with him, spoke to him, comforted him, and commanded him. It is a shuddering thought to ponder the gravity of those moments. That gravity was not lost on Abraham, who built altars to Him all over the Land wherever he went. Abraham did not build houses for himself, he built altars to God.

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

Abraham built altars right away, to mark his obedience to the LORD, and to sacrifice and worship. When Abraham came back from Egypt, “to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.” (Gen. 13:3-4) which is another way of saying worship and sacrifice. When Abraham and Lot had separated and Abram moved to the region of Hebron, he “built an altar there to the Lord” (Gen. 13:18).

Abraham corresponded with the LORD by building altars for worship. Building an altar is an intentional, physical act. Worshiping on front of an altar is an intentional, physical act. When Abraham returned from Egypt, Abraham saw the altar he had originally made and ‘called on the name of the LORD’ in worship and thanks. In this case, the altar was a reminder of his relationship with the great I AM.

We do not need to build altars, but we do need to be as dedicated and as intentional as Abraham in our relationship with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. You note that when Abraham and Lot separated, there was no mention of Lot building an altar to the LORD. Lot was with Abraham when Abraham got the calling from God (Gen. 12:5) and was with Abraham throughout the blessing of his peoples’ increase. Lot saw God working in his family’s life. He reaped the blessings of Abraham’s obedience. But Lot did not build an altar. And from the biblical record we see how the distance between man and God can slowly grow when we fail to consistently correspond with the LORD. Lot crept toward Sodom, closer and closer he pitched his tent, until he was finally living inside the city with all its sin and perversity. Though the sins of the city grieved Lot greatly (2 Pet. 2:6-8) Lot did not build an altar. And in the end, Lot lost his city, his possessions, his family, his wife, (“Remember Lot’s wife” Luke 17:32) and sin fell upon his daughters, who lay with their father.

We do not build altars … but we pray. Our part of the correspondence between ourselves and God/Jesus/Holy Spirit is maintained through prayer, corporate worship, and fellowship in the body of the believers. Is your heart an altar to I AM? Do you pray constantly? Do you worship in faith and obedience, as Abraham did? No? Remember Lot’s wife. Jesus said:

Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife.

Build an altar of prayer in your life and you will be blessed by the presence of the I AM Himself!!!

Posted in end time, holy, prophecy, repent

Holy is a word you don’t hear much these days

Posted on by elizabethprata

And that’s a shame, because it is the central point of all of the story of Redemption. God is Holy. That means He is perfect, sinless, well, Holy.

And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)

Humans are not holy. We were originally created sinless, perfect, but through free will, Adam and Eve in the garden decided to follow Lucifer’s suggestion to eat the forbidden fruit, and in doing so, directly disobeyed a command from God. That is what sin IS, disobeying God. I tell my children in the Good News Club, an after school bible club, that “sin is “anything we think, say, or do that displeases God.” Since we have thoughts, words and actions that displease God all the time, and couldn’t stop if we tried, it means we are sinners with a sin nature. Paul refers to our sinful nature in Galatians:

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:8)

Even if you do not believe in Adam and Eve and the garden and the forbidden fruit, you know deep down, that you are a craven person who does wrong things. Even if you ever said one lie to spare a person’s feelings (“Yes, that dress looks great on you!”) you are disqualified from being with God in heaven. Why? His Holiness is eternal. So is that lie. Sin is eternal, too. It doesn’t go away after you say it or do it or think it. It remains. And your sin and His holiness shall never meet.

Why would a liar think he is qualified for heaven? A cheater? As self-admitted liars and cheats and adulterers, and gossips and lusty people, why do we think we are “a basically a good person” and therefore qualified to dwell forever with a Holy God? We aren’t.

However, God so desires a relationship with us, that He made a way. He sent Jesus to us. I used to think that Jesus first came to us at Bethlehem on Christmas. But that is not so. He has been with God since the beginning. Genesis 1:1-26 shows that the Father God, Jesus and the Spirit were all involved in the Creation. And just in case there is confusion on this point, John 1:1-3 says

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

At one point known only to God, God said

“I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.(Psalm 2:7)

And God’s Plan to send a Holy One to redeem us was enacted, as reiterated by Paul in Acts 13:33:

that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘YOU ARE MY SON TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’

So if we’ve all been sinners since Adam and Eve and He is Holy and cannot dwell with us, that’s it, then, isn’t it? Not quite! We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19) He loves us SO MUCH! He sent Jesus to us to minister and preach and heal, so that our only, ONLY call to the road to heaven is “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6:29b)

It is very simple. Believe. All other verses are spokes stemming that central truth: for example, believing in “the One” means believing in the Messiah. Why was He sent? To seek and save the lost. Why are we lost? We sin. Why is He Messiah? Because He is the ONLY one who is qualified to forgive our sins, being sinless. Why would we confess? Because He came to seek and save us from our sins, therefore it makes sense that we would acknowledge those sins through our stated belief in Him.

Many people believe in God. Believing in Jesus is a huge leap because the gulf between (Jesus and us) and (God and us) is sin. If you believe in Jesus you believe you are a sinner, like the thief on the cross did, because a person is finally recognizing his OWN sin in the face of the obviously Sinless one. Many people believe in God without believing they themselves are sinners and they leave Jesus out of the equation completely.

Because God is HOLY, and we sin, man must “reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. (Jeremiah 26:13)”

Believe, and turn from your sin. Repent and be dwelling in perfect love for all eternity! Love, love, love, we love because HE FIRST LOVED US! He is wonderful and a holy God like no other. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple,” that is how holy He is. Yet for all His holiness, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16) He is waiting there for you with open arms.