Category: prophecy

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Thirty Days of Jesus: Day 18, The Highest King

Posted on by elizabethprata

thirty days of jesus day 18

Further Reading

Though the verse is literally speaking about King David, the relation of David to Christ means the verse also prefigures the preeminence of King Jesus. The throne, through David’s line, would last forever through Christ.

Gill’s Exposition says,

Also I will make him my firstborn,…. Or, “make him the firstborn”; make him great, as Jarchi interprets it; give him the blessing, the double portion of inheritance: so Christ is made most blessed for ever, and has all spiritual blessings in his hands; and is heir of all things, and his people joint-heirs with him. Christ is God’s “firstborn”, or “first begotten”, Hebrews 1:6, being begotten by him, and of him; … even him the Father promises to make “higher than the kings of the earth”; having a kingdom of a superior nature to theirs, and a more extensive and durable one; and even they themselves shall be subject to him; hence he is called “King of kings”, Revelation 19:16.

The King of Kings shall reign forever, His Kingdom shall endure. See Day 16: Two Kingdoms for related verse & info.

Thirty Days of Jesus Series-

Introduction/Background
Day 1: The Virgin shall conceive
Day 2: A shoot from Jesse
Day 3: God sent His Son in the fullness of time
Day 4:  Marry her, she will bear a Son
Day 5: The Babe has arrived!
Day 6: The Glory of Jesus
Day 7: Magi seek the Child
Day 8: The Magi offer gifts & worship
Day 9: The Child Grew
Day 10: The boy Jesus at the Temple
Day 11: He was Obedient!
Day 12: The Son!
Day 13: God is pleased with His Son
Day 14: Propitiation
Day 15: The gift of eternal life
Day 16: Two Kingdoms
Day 17: Jesus’ Preeminence

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The US President orders embassy move to Jerusalem

Posted on by elizabethprata

Today the US President Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital and Orders U.S. Embassy to Move

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and setting in motion a plan to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to the fiercely contested Holy City.

“Today we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital,” Mr. Trump said from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House.

This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.”

The president cast his decision as a break with decades of failed policy on Jerusalem, which the United States, along with virtually every other nation in the world, has declined to recognize as the capital since Israel’s founding in 1948. That policy, he said, brought us “no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Jerusalem is an ancient city, first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 14 when Abraham gave a tenth of all that he had to the mysterious Melchizedek, king of ‘Salem’ (Jerusalem) and a Priest of the God Most High. Jerusalem was not always the capital of Israel. Earlier in Israel’s history, the ark was located at Shiloh, in the tabernacle, for 400 years.

Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. (Jeremiah 7:12).

my place … in Shiloh—God caused His tabernacle to be set up in Shiloh in Joshua’s days (Jos 18:1; Jdg 18:31). In Eli’s time God gave the ark, which had been at Shiloh, into the hands of the Philistines (Je 26:6; 1 Sa 4:10, 11; Ps 78:56–61). Shiloh was situated between Beth-el and Shechem in Ephraim.

Eventually, the LORD Placed His name at Jerusalem.

but I have chosen Jerusalem that my name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel. (2 Chronicles 6:6)

Solomon’s proclamation to the worshipers (6:3–11) links two great themes together as facets of the Davidic covenant: the holy city of Jerusalem and the holy temple building. Solomon acknowledges that God has finally chosen a permanent dwelling place for his Name. From the beginnings of the covenant, the symbol of God’s presence has been portable. As one of the consequences of building a permanent dwelling for God’s Name, the location of that building, Jerusalem, is now a holy city. Three great themes are united in this great effort prescribed by the Davidic covenant: the sacred dynasty, the sacred temple building, and the sacred city of Jerusalem. Bowling, A. C. (1995). 1-2 Chronicles. In Evangelical Commentary on the Bible

The future looks bright for Jerusalem.

The LORD will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. (Zechariah 2:12).

I’m very glad that Jerusalem is recognized by the US as Israel’s capital city. I pray for peace there, now and forever.

 

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The Idlers at the Gate

Posted on by elizabethprata

‎This celebrated sixty-ninth psalm has been called the missionary’s psalm. It speaks of the miseries of one far from home and kindred, of one who proclaims God to those who will not heed. The unbelievers, in their rage and scorn, heap injury upon the preacher, afflict him both in body and in mind. “Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. “For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.”

‎Then follows the picture of this good man mocked by the idlers who even to-day, as in the psalmist’s time, gather about the gate of every Eastern city, to chat with those who pass, and comment upon them. The ridicule of these falls heavily upon the psalmist; he cries out, “Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness; and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.”

Source: The Bible and its Story, Volume 6: Poetry–Prophets, Psalms to Isaiah

The Bible and Its Story is a massive collection of images which illuminate the story of Scripture. The images are taken from modern paintings, illustrations, and other renderings of the ancient text. Together, The Bible and its Story serves as a pictorial narrative of the entire story of the Bible—from beginning to end. It compiles the best of modern artwork to bring the Bible vividly to life.

 

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Left Behind in Labrador

Posted on by elizabethprata

Youtube offers endless hours of entertainment for those wanting a brief escape. My cousin posts a positive and humorous vlog every day, which I enjoy watching. Then I might browse videos showing funny antics of children or animals.

One Vlogger I enjoy is Don’s Family Vacations, who focuses a lot on tips for cruisers. I don’t enjoy traditional large ship cruising, but I enjoy his tips anyway. He’s kind, engaging, and the information about the Cruise Ships is interesting.

He stresses in several of his vlogs that the Cruise Ship always leaves on time. If you attend an off-ship excursion, be sure to arrive back at the dock before they take in the gangway and cast off. They will leave you behind.

This is from Cruise Critic:

Far be it from us to take joy from another’s misery, but we admit there’s something inherently amusing about passengers sprinting the length of the dock — often to the mocking cheers of those already onboard — when they realize they’re late getting back to their cruise ship. Usually these aptly named “pier runners” are lucky. They throw themselves across the gangway, and the doors close behind them. Others, however, aren’t so fortunate. Mistakes happen, in spite of the best-laid plans; if you find yourself still on dry land while your ship is sailing off into the sunset, it’s not the end of the world. Check out our tips and advice for how to avoid missing your ship, how to prepare in case you do miss it and what to do if your cruise ship leaves you behind.

Sometimes I go on Youtube to watch short vlogs of people running to catch the ship, always in vain. I look at the pier runners as the ship steams away, thinking about their predicament of being in a foreign country without resource. It must be scary to arrive from your excursion to an empty, deserted pier! Cruise Critic did say,

What must those people with unfortunate timing think? How awful to be left behind. According to Don of Don’s Family Vacations, they must somehow get home using their own money and resources. Once the passenger has missed the ship, the Cruise Line is not responsible for them any longer.

I laughed along with the  observers in these videos, until I remember that once, I’d been a pier runner too!

My husband and I took a cruise that wasn’t a cruise. We traveled as passengers aboard an icebreaker/ferry/cargo ship in Upper Quebec and Labrador. (Relais Nordik). At that time, there were few roads connecting the villages that dotted the shoreline of this large Province, and the boat acted as ferry, mail boat, grocery delivery, and human transportation from one port to another. In between the towns after Sept-Iles, there was only tundra.

Back in the 1990s when we were aboard, conditions were primitive. The sole aim of the ship was to transport cargo and passengers, not to cater to people boarding the boat as a cruiser. We slept in a quadruple bunk room, ate with the crew, and played cards or watched the scenery because there were no on-board activities. Now, the Ship has nicer cabins for people who want to take the route as a cruising passenger, they suggest shore excursions, and provide dinner seatings with set tables and everything! It’s still rough and tumble though. The ship is still mainly a ferry. Due to variable and potentially rough conditions, the cruise line disclaims a specific return time shorter than a 36-48 hour window, lol.

The run went from Rimouski to Blanc-Sablon, and included Anticosti Island

I collect shells. At one stop, we walked the beach and I noticed that Canada grows some giant scallops! The shells cast up on the beach were 3 to 4 inches across. I got absorbed looking at all the shells on the beach. I saw some species I’d never been able to collect, and there were other species I wasn’t familiar with. Time passed.

Gradually I noticed that it was quiet. Too quiet. Everyone had left! Oh no!

I ran as fast as my short legs could go, and I saw the ship with engines on and lines casting off. The crew was trying to take in the gangway but my husband was standing on it and wouldn’t let them. I got up there and ran up the ramp and they withdrew the gangway and we were off. That was a close one!

They said that on this route, if we’re left behind, we’re supposed to knock on doors of the few homes until one of the homeowners takes pity on you and lets you sleep there till the ship is on the return route. When the ship returns you can get back on and resume your journey. Depending on where the ship left you behind, it may be 2-4 days until it returns.

As I hustled up to the ship I was wondering what I would do if I was left behind. I had a nasty knot in my stomach and I was breathing hard, and it wasn’t just from the running! I was almost left behind to dwell in a unfamiliar land

It makes me wonder even more about the people who will be left behind when the real ship sails. The real ship I’m talking about is the Ship of State, the Church. Paul said in Romans 11:25,

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, 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 term ‘full number’ is from the Greek pleroo, and means full number, completeness. The word was usually used in reference to a ship and its full number of crew. Admiralty law at the time banned any ship from sailing until the full number of necessary sailors were staffed to man it.

What will it feel like to be left behind for those people in the world who aren’t saved, and have some familiarity with Christianity? Maybe they’ve heard someone give the Gospel, or know of the rapture and left behind from the books or movies. The devastating feeling the cruiser has in the pit of their stomach when they’ve been left behind at the pier will be magnified a million-fold. You’ve been left behind on earth. There will be no running to catch the ship, for it will disappear in the blink of an eye. One moment here, the next…gone.

There is a solution that will ensure your participation in the rapture. When it sails will it have you in it? The solution is to repent of your sins. Ask Jesus to forgive them, and lay your life down at His feet. Once you trust in Jesus as the Savior King, then He will consider you not an enemy any more but a sheep in his fold.

Don’t be a pier runner.

Here are some fictionalized versions of what the rapture might look like.

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Pleading for a reduced charge

Posted on by elizabethprata

People who are unsaved have a list of charges against them. These are the sins (crimes) they have committed against Jesus during their lifetime. At the end of time, Jesus will assemble all the unsaved and judge them. The judgment is not whether or not they will be going to heaven or hell. The one and only standard against which people are judged is whether they believed in the Son.

They will be judged on their crimes. God keeps track.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:12).

For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done. (Matthew 16:27)

This is not just a New Testament concept. It is in the Old Testament too, seen in the eschatological book of Daniel.

A river of fire was flowing And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books were opened. (Daniel 7:10).

Unsaved people are judged according to their deeds they did in life, and their words, and their thoughts. (Luke 8:17, Romans 2:16, Matthew 12:37).

The sea gave up its dead, and Death and Hades gave up their dead, and each one was judged according to his deeds. (Revelation 20:13).

John MacArthur said of this verse,

The record, by the way, for each person will be unique and so will the punishment. That’s an important thing to think about. Hell is not like some great big hole where everybody gets thrown into the same place with the same level of torment. No. Every person’s life will be evaluated uniquely and every person’s punishment will be consistent with that unique evaluation.
For example, and I need to explain this cause it’s very important to understand there are degrees of punishment consistent with degrees of sinfulness. … So there is a more and a less tolerable punishment, fitting the level of sin.

Knowing this, all this foundation I just laid, that we’re judged on our deeds, thoughts, and words, and that the punishment corresponds in relativity to other how many crimes they committed, let’s turn now to two other verses.

And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:60).

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up His garments by casting lots. (Luke 23:34).

What does this mean? I’m sorry that after looking at the scriptures and many commentaries, I do not have an answer. I don’t know how this plea turns out in the heavenlies. But my thoughts are, if punishment is relative, and if we plead with God to forgive a sinner’s sin against us, would He remove that sin from their charge, reducing the severity of the punishment by a jot or a tittle? Stephen prayed so. Jesus did as well. It’s worth thinking about.

You’ve heard, no doubt, in the earthly judicial system about a reduced charge. You’ve seen lawyers on TV plea bargaining and listing the charges and then the judge might decide to remove a charge or two and the person serves a sentence with a lesser degree of punishment. There legal terms are familiar to to you.

Recently the adult son of a well-known theologian-pastor was charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors. When it came time for sentencing they decided to forego a trial. The judge wiped one felony and two misdemeanors from the list of this man’s charges and the man was only charged with one misdemeanor. He’s serving 18 months of probation and no jail time. Some charges were removed and thus the punishment was lessened.

Jesus commanded in the Lord’s prayer to forgive those who trespass against us. Is it too bold to plea that He remove the charge of those who trespassed against us from their list of crimes thus lessening their punishment? Stephen did not think it too bold. Does God actually do so if we pray it? I do not know.

I do know that when I pray for my enemies, and specifically for God to remove the charge of their crimes against me from the list of crimes which we know are ultimately perpetrated against Him, it is a prayer of grace and humility that changes me.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. (Philippians 4:3).

Can I forgive as God asked us to forgive? Can I pray this as Stephen had? If I think of others more highly than myself, I will.

Gill’s Exposition says of the Acts 7 verse and Stephen:

Lord, lay not this sin to their charge: do not impute it to them, or place it to their account; let it not rise and stand in judgment against them, or they be condemned for it; grant them forgiveness for it, and for every other sin: there is a great deal of likeness between Christ and this first martyr of his at their deaths; Christ committed his Spirit into the hands of his Father, and Stephen commits his into the hands of Christ; both prayed for forgiveness for their enemies; and both cried with a loud voice before they expired; for so it follows here,

Pray for your enemies, for those who have done you wrong. God will dole out the punishment as He wills, the Lord knows, I do not know. But meanwhile, we grow in grace when we think of others more highly than ourselves, even our enemies, and plead with the Lord to remove this charge from their list of deeds and not hold it against them.

angel lamb's book of life

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The Man Who Will Change the World

Posted on by elizabethprata

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. Two days ahead of president-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, the Independent UK newspaper published this article:

John Rentoul: The man who will change the world

There will setbacks, there will be frustrations, but Barack Obama’s presidency heralds a better future for his country and for us all.

It’s nearly 9 years since that was written. Are you having a better future yet? If so, was it thanks to Obama? The article continued,

On that slight prospectus, he secured the support of the voters of the United States and, by proxy, the non-voters of the rest of the world, to assume leadership not just of the most powerful nation but of the entire planet.

I was unaware that by proxy, the American President was actually a Global King.

But that is how they viewed Obama. “The world will be a better place” the author concluded. He was sure that Obama was a savior come to rescue us from…whatever the secular world believes we need rescuing from.

Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope, then and throughout his 2 terms, co-opted the word hope and twisted it into a political slogan that drained it of meaning. The Gentile world hopes for what they cannot see, do not know, and yearn for an unnameable something. They dwell in a cloud of foggy wisps of aspirations, desires, wishes, expectations, that cannot ever be grasped.

The born-again Christian knows that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). Assurance and conviction are key words there.

The Obama debacle was a forerunner (in my opinion) of how the world seeks and will embrace the final false savior- The Antichrist. They look for a savior, a man, who will bring them temporal comfort, political savvy, global dynamism. They want someone handsome, accomplished, smooth-tongued, who will tell them everything will be all right and all they have to do is ride his coattails.

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18).

However, there is a prophecy that one is to come who will embody all the negative qualities of all sinners who ever existed. A man who will be so full of sin he is called The Man of Sin. (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

They want everything except the Man-God who tells them they need forgiveness of sin, to sacrifice self for neighbor, to help the poor and widows, to obey, to submit, and to release their hold on this world. Those words and concepts are anathema. The Man of Sin will speak much more flatteringly to the people and ignite their heart of what they really want. They want luxuries, delicacies, cargoes, and splendors. (Revelation 18:14). In other words, they want this world.

Anyone who does not believe in Jesus is an antichrist, little ‘a’, as John wrote-

In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. (Daniel 11:21).

The coming antichrist will be a man, a regular, mortal man, but satanically imbued with charisma, charm, apparent skill, deftness, and solutions, the world will go after him, hard.

This prophesied time that is not yet here, will be a time like the author wrote of when Obama rode the crest of popularity and was actually whispered to be a savior. The above author’s glee and relief that a savior in Obama had come and the world will be fixed was not just his own, most of the world thought so too. Amplify that wave of popularity by ten thousand million and you have an idea of the reception the Antichrist will receive.

There is only one Man who can ever fix the world.

Jesus Christ is that Man, who is Man-God. He is creator of the world, reader of hearts, intercessor of His people, King above all, bringer of wrath.

He already came, taught, lived a sinless life, died as a sacrifice for redemption’s sake, imputed His righteousness to those who confess Him, ascended into heaven, and has been building His church. He will come again. He will allow the Antichrist to have his time, prophesied for three and a half short years, but then The Man-God, Savior of the world will return in wrath and kill those who make war against Him.

Repent now, while Jesus is building His church and receives with grace, not wrath. Your sins would be forgiven, and thrown into a place as far as the east is from the west.

For whether is easier, to say, Your sins be forgiven you, or to say, Arise, and walk? (Matthew 9:5)

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

For whether is easier to say – Thy “sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise and walk?” The one involves divine “power,” the other divine “authority,” and neither can be done but by God. One is as easy as the other; and to be able to do the one, involves the right and the power to do the other.

Jesus is the only savior. Not any other man. Turn to Him now.

cloud

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Why I love prophecy

Posted on by elizabethprata

In 2008 Pastor Phil Johnson wrote,

My own assessment would be that evangelicalism’s spiritual condition at the beginning of the twenty-first century is reminiscent of the medieval church just prior to the Protestant Reformation.

No, I take it back. Things are much worse among evangelicals today than they were in the Catholic Church in those days. Modern and postmodern evangelicalism is just like medieval Catholicism was—only more superficial.

He made the same assessment again last week during the Reformation reminiscing.

The news just keeps getting more bewildering. Sometimes I look at people who perpetrate these heinous crimes and see these faux-pastors who perform blasphemous services and I think, Jesus please come.

Prophecy promises us that He IS returning. We don’t know when, but I am glad to know, as I saw on Twitter, that “Evil has an expiration date.”

Prophecy is all about movement. It is always moving toward fulfillment. For example, the lineage of Jesus was ordained from the beginning. Each generation of unions resulting in a child was a movement toward Mary’s birth of the Messiah. Sometimes prophecy seems to be fulfilled suddenly, sometimes extremely so by those who have not been following it. Other times it was impossible to follow, as in the generations that preceded Jesus. Who knew that 1300 or so years prior to the birth of the Messiah that Rahab’s faith would save her and that she would subsequently be included in the line that would produce the Savior? Who could know that the perfect line of generations that came before Him would result in the One who would fulfill all? So sometimes it seems to come out of the blue. But God’s hand is always moving, His Divine Providence is always working in the world.

Divine providence is the means by and through which God governs all things in the universe. The doctrine of divine providence asserts that God is in complete control of all things. This includes the universe as a whole (Psalm 103:19), the physical world (Matthew 5:45), the affairs of nations (Psalm 66:7), human birth and destiny (Galatians 1:15), human successes and failures (Luke 1:52), and the protection of His people (Psalm 4:8).” (source)

So everything that happens, He is aware of, causes, or allows. And that means everything that happens is on a path toward fulfilled promises, including prophecy.

Is the movement speeding up? It feels like it. And what it is speeding up toward? Remember, the last days of the Tribulation is the end this age. It is the culmination of all of God’s works regarding sin, with the exception of the short rebellion at the end of the 1000 year Millennium Kingdom.

If you are interested in studying eschatology AKA prophecy, AKA Last Things, AKA prophecy, good for you. Prophecy is pre-written history. It is a demonstration of the Bible’s inspiration by the Holy Spirit and its accuracy as being a book delivered to us outside of time by our sovereign and omnipotent God. He proves Himself over and over by its accuracy and fulfillment. Israel’s re-emergence in 1948, an prophetic fulfillment that occurred in some of our lifetimes, is an example. The fulfillment of prophecy and its constant movement toward fulfillment is the very word of God, validated.

God accomplishes prophecy: “Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ And I will raise up her waste places;” (Isaiah 44:26)

Ultimately, we study prophecy because Christ is THE great subject of it, since the beginning. We love prophecy because we trust His word, we love God’s timeless sovereignty, and we want to seek the face of Christ, the great subject of all time.

“For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.” (Acts 3:22-24).

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The war to end all wars: Thoughts on War and Peace

Posted on by elizabethprata

WWI represented a sea change. The technology available by the time that war in Europe broke out was like none ever seen in any previous war. The new technology could kill millions at a time. And it did.

Planes, flame throwers, tanks, poison gas…all created by man for the express purpose of killing in war and used in WWI.

WWI was also known for a stirring slogan, or motto. “It is the war to end all war!”

The is thanks to HG Wells, as this article from Vision describes:

This year marks the centennial of the outbreak of World War I. [1914-1918]. While the so-called Great War quickly proved to be anything but the war that would prevent all future conflicts, the concept is still intriguing: Can a war put an end to war?

HG Wells wrote: “This is now a war for peace. It aims straight at disarmament. It aims at a settlement that shall stop this sort of thing for ever. Every soldier who fights against Germany now is a crusader against war. This, the greatest of all wars, is not just another war—it is the last war!”

We’re all disheartened by war. As a child of the 1960s (born in 1960) the Viet Nam war raged as the bloody backdrop to my entire childhood. Scenes and clips of army men manhandled on stretchers through the jungle, bloody bandages, helicopters hovering over wildly waving tree top greenery, Walter Cronkite intoning the numbers of dead and wounded…all provided a confusing view of the world.

Into my adulthood, the dominating Soviet Bloc was bearishly stomping all over the world, the Berlin Wall went up, President Reagan and the real possibility of nuclear holocaust informed my adulthood as much as it perplexed it. We all felt that the world could end at any moment.

And now today, the North Korean President has intimated he could and will perform an attack on the US in the form of an electro-magnetic pulse. Such an attack, where a nuclear bomb explodes in the atmosphere above any land area emits a pulse that wipes out the electrical infrastructure. An EMP bomb exploded over the central US would impact all 48 of the lower US states by immediately turning off all electronics, including landlines, cell phones, wi-fi, internet, cars with chips int hem, etc. Mass starvation, disease, and violence from societal collapse would do the rest and 90% of the population would die withing the first couple of years.

Wars and rumors of wars have always been with us. It’s rough out there and it has been since almost the beginning. Look at Genesis 4:13-14. Cain had killed Abel. God spoke to Cain and told him his punishment will be that Cain will be a wanderer over all the earth for the rest of his days. Cain immediately worried that he would be killed by anyone who found him.

Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

Only one chapter after the Fall we not only have murder by Cain against Abel but Cain knows that people everywhere are violent and likely as not would just kill him as to invite him in for a cup of tea.

As a child and teen and young adult I used to wonder quite often why the world was like this. Why were there wars after wars? Why was there always war? If we could just get the right ingredients to mix smoothly, we could solve this war problem. Is it that there are too may dictators? Unjust land grabs? Economic disparity? Unequal power? What was the magic balance so that we would never have war again?

Here is the answer as to why there are wars.

We are all, individually at war with Jesus. Inside us, we are born for war, each and every one of us. Our depraved nature demands it. We war against the King, the Supreme Power, the Creator who made us. We love sin and hate holiness and battle against holiness daily, hourly, every moment.

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4).

because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s Law, nor can it do so. (Romans 8:7)

Our hostility is the basis for all our actions. The enmity, or hostility, we feel against Jesus causes a battle within ourselves, battle against our neighbors, battle against Jesus, battle against nations. The rage we feel against the knowledge we all possess against a Holy God to whom we are accountable expresses itself in personal violence and national violence. (Romans 1:18-20).

“The War that Will End All Wars” will be Armageddon. All wars are leading up to that Big One. The entire world as represented by the global armies assembled at Har Megiddo will come together to fight Jesus. (Revelation 19:19). They will lose. (Revelation 19:21).

The only peace we can ever have is the peace that Jesus gives us. Redemption and His salvation settles the battle we wage in our hearts against Him and His holy standard.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27).

Once we are reconciled with Him,we are no longer at war with our own selves (except our sin-nature, but the Spirit helps us quell it). We love our neighbors, we love the King, we love His holy abode and release attachment to this earth.We are simply aliens in it.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7).

We were not only called to salvation, to holiness, to the Kingdom of Light, we were called to peace. Before salvation, there is no peace. Only war. After salvation, we are called to His peace

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called. (Colossians 3:15).

Posted in prophecy, Uncategorized

The view from space: “We are all so unbelievably small”

Posted on by elizabethprata

God is majestic. He is enormous in power, might, will, strength, and mind. He made the universe in 6 successive, literal days, with just His voice. He created all the stars and named them also. This achievement is incredible to wrap our minds around, especially since we as humans are self-centered and myopic. We can’t conceive of exactly how big the universe is partly because we’re seeking our own glory which blinds us to it. We tend to magnify our own selves as a human race. (Genesis 11:1-9).

We also diminish God in His power, especially because He is invisible. (John 20:29; 1 Peter 1:8). However, God created the universe, moon, sun, and earth as a sign to us sinful creatures who in our pre-salvation state, do not know Him. As it says in Romans 1:18-20,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

It’s highly important to believe and understand that Genesis 1 is literal. It is not poetry, allegory, or hyperbole. It is lyrical, to be sure, but it is a record of actual history as it happened. It is revealed to us by the One and only witness to its creation: Jehovah.

Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.
(Revelation 4:11.)

When Paul preached to the Gentiles, he used creation to convict them of God’s existence. (Acts 14:15; 17:24-26.) He then used that truth in the Gospel’s proclamation. By this, we know that Paul believed the opening chapters of Genesis as historical fact as revealed.

I’ve felt an increasing burden for the evangelical world’s compromise of and even outright rejection of Genesis 1 as literal fact. On blogs, I see that when asked, major ministries claim that Genesis 1/literal creation/young earth is a tangential issue not appropriate to bring up in evangelism. Yet Paul used creation and Genesis 1 as the foundation of evangelism in Acts and Romans!

In personal conversations with people they tell me that Genesis 1 isn’t a battleground because, well, the Gospel isn’t there. But it is! Genesis 1 & 2 demonstrate the Creator to whom we are all responsible.  Genesis 3 shows us the reason we need the Gospel and contains the protoevangelium.

I’ve been feeling this burden for Genesis 1 for a few months now. I intuit that it is from the Lord and that it is in my heart and mind for a reason. I’ll be writing about it, I surmise, several times in upcoming blogs.

Today’s point I’d be pleased that you take away is that preaching a literal Genesis 1 aligns with the foundational truth Paul used when he preached to the Gentiles.  Preaching Genesis 1’s literal and 6-day creation doesn’t have the same impact, say, if you were to tell the Gentile it’s just a poem.

Please watch this short video to see how unbelievably small we are, and by comparison how unbelievably big God is. I don’t think it is produced with a Creation/Creator perspective in mind, but it is factual and amazing nonetheless.

Scripture cannot be broken, and the battle for Genesis 1 as literal and historical is the primary and starting hill to die on.