Category: prophecy

Posted in Book of Revelation, encouragement, genesis, jesus, prophecy

The Tree of Life

Posted on by elizabethprata

It is profitable to ponder God’s role as vine-dresser, and the agricultural metaphors of the branch, the tree, and the pruning, and the fruit.

I was listening to a sermon about us being the branches connected to the vine, (John 15:4). We had a rain-wind event here and a tree in the yard lost a good portion of itself. Can this branch produce any fruit? No. Apart from the tree, it can do nothing. That is any lost person who is apart from Jesus and any saved person operating in the flesh and not the Spirit.

EPrata photo

In addition to the branch, I was also thinking of the agricultural metaphors of vine, tree, branch, fruit, and then…I started thinking about the Tree of Life.

I like trees, and I love the Tree of Life. I like thinking about God’s tree, the life He gives us, and the tree of life in Heaven we will see. Here are some mentions in scripture of the Tree of Life. It is mentioned in Genesis and Revelation (nice bookends), and also in other places.

The Tree of Life defined:

One of two trees situated in the centre of the Garden of Eden. It is also mentioned in Revelation, where it symbolises life and salvation. [Manser, M. H. Dictionary of Bible Themes]

The tree of life as a metaphor:
Pr 15:4 See also Pr 3:13-18; 11:30; 13:12. [Manser, M. H. (2009). Dictionary of Bible Themes]

The Tree of Life described:

Some people wish they had a tree which grew money, but there is an even better tree—the “tree of life.” The term in Greek, xulon zōēs, denotes “a tree that gives life”—that is, eternal life (John 20:31). This tree symbolizes the eternal life God has made available to humanity. We see this tree in the very beginning of the Bible and at the very end. 

The “tree of life” was placed by God in the midst of the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:8–9). God told Adam that he could eat from every tree of the garden except the “tree of the knowledge” of good and evil (Gen. 2:16–17). When Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were expelled from the garden lest they “take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” (Gen. 3:22). The Genesis narrative suggests that God intended the “tree of life” to provide Adam and Eve with a symbol of life in fellowship with and dependence on Him. Human life, as distinguished from that of the animals, is much more than merely biological; it is also spiritual—it finds its deepest fulfillment in fellowship with God. 

The book of Revelation contains the only references to the “tree of life” in the New Testament (Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19). The Bible begins and ends with a Paradise in the midst of which is a “tree of life.” The way to the “tree of life,” which was closed in Genesis 3, is open again for God’s believing people. This was made possible by the second Adam, Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for the sins of all humanity—from Adam to you and me. Those who have washed their robes in the blood of Christ (Rev. 7:14) and have sought forgiveness of their sin through the redemptive work of Christ, receive the right to the “tree of life” (Rev. 22:14), but the disobedient will have no access to it. This tree will give constant, continuous life to all who partake of it, for it symbolizes the eternal life of God made available to redeemed humanity. [Carpenter, E. E., Holman Treasury of Key Bible words]

And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)

And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” (Genesis 3:22)

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24)

through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:2)

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. (Revelation 22:14)

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise. (Proverbs 11:30).

The Garden must have been so beautiful. I can’t wait until all is restored (Isaiah 51:3). Heaven where the Tree is must be so majestic. What the tree symbolizes is even more wonderful- eternal fellowship in righteous and holy life with God. Thank you, Lord, for all you have given us now and all we have to look forward to, forever.

The Tree of Life in art:

In Gustav Klimt’s famous mural, The Tree of Life … signifies the connection between heaven and earth and the underworld. For Klimt’s admirers, the mural also has another significance, being the only landscape created by the artist during his golden period. Klimt used oil painting techniques with gold paint, to create luxurious art pieces during that time.

The concept of the tree of life is illustrated by Gustav Klimt’s painting, in a bold and original manner. The swirling branches create symbolism, suggesting the perpetuity of life. The branches twist, twirl, turn, spiral and undulate, creating a tangle of strong branches, long vines and fragile threads, an expression of life’s complexity. With its branches reaching for the sky, the tree of life roots into the earth beneath, creating the connection between heaven and earth…While the artist uses a richness of symbols, gold for paint and other luxurious techniques to illustrate a magical world, the presence of a single black bird draws the viewer towards the central part of the painting. The black bird is a reminder that everything that has a beginning also has an end, as black birds have been used as a symbol of death by many cultures… (source)

Posted in grace, lovers of self, perilous times shall come, prophecy

Prophecy: ‘For men (and women) will be lovers of self…’

Posted on by elizabethprata

A clip making the rounds on Facebook from Fox “120 Sports” shows the self-absorption of people consistent (in my opinion) of the prophetic verse from 2 Timothy 3:2, “men will be lovers of self”. Here is a still shot-

I snapped this photo that is below 8 years ago when cell phones with cameras were just coming into the fore. I was shocked and surprised at the amount of time the gals were taking to gaze upon themselves. Of course, 8 years ago, the word ‘selfie’ hadn’t been invented yet. ‘Selfie’ was Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year in 2013. They note that the use of the word selfie increased 17,000 percent from 2012 to 2013.

I do not own a cellphone so being on ‘the outside’, I see cell phone mania all the more.

In one of his letters to Timothy, Paul strongly warned about the behavior of humans in the last days. The last days/end time/last times has been occurring since Jesus ascended and will conclude when He returns. (Acts 2:16-17, cf Joel 2:28). Because of the deteriorating nature of man individually and of society, the times will worsen as the last days progress. (2 Timothy 3:13, 2 Timothy 2:16).

Paul’s specific warning to Timothy about the perilous times that were ahead for the young pastor included a lengthy list of behaviors that will be evidence of the times and which will be contributing to the deterioration of society. Here is Paul’s warning.

Godlessness in the Last Days

1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. (2 Timothy 3:1-9).

These perilous times will be more and more frequent and intense, whereas the intervening periods of relative tranquility will become less and less frequent and peaceful, as the return of Christ nears. ~John MacArthur
Let’s look at the warning about being lovers of self in the last days. Paul’s warnings regarded the difficult times in the church. He was giving Timothy warnings about spiritual impostors and urging him to oppose them and expose them. We know that the world is difficult, godless, and selfish. What will be the difficulty is that the church will become infested with and overrun by people who are the world but pretend to be godly.

In John Warwick Montgomery’s book Damned Through the Church, Montgomery outlines 7 epochs in church history where times have been especially difficult. These have been movements of certain theological orientations which have negatively impacted the church. One of them was that the self has become God, and this movement is still affecting the Church at large in this day and age. As the MacArthur Commentary on 2 Timothy states,

It would be appropriate to add to Montgomery’s list the current emphases on mysticism, which seeks to determine truth about God by intuition and feeling, and pragmatism, which attempts to determine what is true by what produces desired effects. These movements do not come and go but come to stay, so that as the years go on, the church accumulates them, and the battles continue.

If you have ever heard a teacher like Beth Moore or Priscilla Shirer or any of the younger female teachers such as from the Propel Movement or the IF:Gathering, they often speak of how we feel as the determiner of truth. Here is an example of that mysticism:

What Moore is saying here is that if we have certain feelings inside of us, it brings us closer to God. But the truth is, it’s about Who we worship, not how we feel. And what if I don’t feel romanced by a sunset (what does that even mean?), then am I apart from God? And how long is this romance feeling supposed to last? How can I sustain this romantic feeling or increase it to feel even closer to Him? What if I “can’t” feel romanced by the sun, when then? You see the issue with constantly teaching about our feelings.

As for the pragmatism, here is an example. If you ever hear anyone say something like, “We packed the church tonight, it must have really been a big move of God!” They look at the numbers of attendees for evidence that the Spirit is working, not whether truth was proclaimed. No one ever thinks that the large numbers attending the program, event, or speaker may have been because satan was planting tares. (Matthew 13:35).

The original sin was pride. It was first found in satan in heaven and he imported it to earth and deceived Adam and Eve. Their rebellion was based on a foundation of loving self more than loving God, thus violating the first commandment. (Exodus 20:3, Matthew 22:37-39).

This notion of self-love and self-esteem infiltrated the church early last century and only grew from there. I remember as a teacher of young children in the 1980s when the self-esteem movement came in full force. The secular world had grabbed it and would not let go. All children were winners in the game, teaching reading was (nearly) out, but we were supposed to spend time in the first segment of the day teaching self-esteem and affirming everything the children did or said. It was only a matter of time before the secular world’s self-love which had coalesced into psychology, esteem movements, personality cults. and affirmation with no companion concepts of discipline or boundaries came into the church. The tares brought it in. They still are.

Another memory is the 1972 book “I’m OK, You’re OK” by Thomas Anthony Harris. It is one of the best selling self-help books ever published. It is a practical guide to Transactional Analysis as a method for solving problems in life. (source). Satan constantly attempts to shift our eyes from God to the self, and once gazing at the self, to believe that we are really just all right and do not need anything from God. We are our own gods.

When we see such fascination with one’s self like in the video or photos above, you can be sure that the same attitudes are also present in the church, just as Paul warned. At the root of the self-esteem problem is one that is really pride. The attitude is ‘I’m OK, I am not a depraved sinner in need of the cleansing blood of Jesus, I need nothing from God, I am my own god’ which is exactly what satan believes. (Isaiah 14:14).

Gill commented on the 2 Timothy perilous times/lovers of self verse:

For men shall be lovers of their own selves,…. Not in a good sense, as men may be, and as such are who love their neighbours as themselves, and do that to others they would have done to themselves; and who take all prudent and lawful care to preserve the life and health of their bodies, and seek in a right way the salvation of their immortal souls:

but in a bad sense, as such may be said to be, who only love themselves; their love to God, and Christ, and to the saints, being only in pretence, not in reality; and who do all they do in a religious way, from a principle of self-love, and to selfish and mercenary ends…

How can one avoid the pitfall of self-love? It IS our natural inclination after all. Let’s look at what scripture says.

First, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27).

If we are filled with loving God utmost, it doesn’t leave much room to love ourselves. We do fail at this, no one loves God totally all the time, completely. As a matter of fact, the world’s pull is going in the opposite direction, where the times are like the days of Noah when men thought of evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5). So we rely on the Holy Spirit in us more and more to weed out the attachment to the world and the hate in our own hearts so that we may love God all the more. Further, that love of Him and then our neighbor more than ourselves is expressed not just in feelings, but in actions.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. . (Philippians 2:3-4).

We’re not out to please ourselves but to look after the interests of others. (Philippians 2:21, Romans 15:1).

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

Love, do, look, carry… If we are looking unto God and caring for and doing good to our neighbor, we won’t have time for selfies.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14)

Posted in abimelek, abraham, bible, lie, prophecy

Abraham and Abimelek: Lies of omission and half-lies are still lies

Posted on by elizabethprata
Abimelech rebuking Abraham by Wenceslaus Hollar

After Abraham was personally visited by angels and by Jesus, (Genesis 18:1-3, 14), and after Abraham personally asked for the LORD to protect his nephew Lot from destruction in Sodom, (Genesis 18:22-23), and after Abraham personally witnessed the destruction of four of the five Cities of the Plain (Genesis 19:28), despite having had another reassurance by God of His chosen plan involving Abraham (Genesis 15:6), thus knowing his God’s sovereign power, holiness, and mercy, in the next chapter Abraham lied. And why? To help God out.

In Genesis 20:1, Abraham is journeying in King Abimelek’s lands. (“toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.” Gen 20:1). Abraham thought to himself that since the people in that area are not God-fearing, I am going to need to lie about my beautiful wife Sarah.

And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. (Genesis 20:2).

Twenty-five years earlier, Abraham said that of his wife when he feared Pharaoh. Pulpit Commentary said of Abraham’s lie then and in this chapter, that lying was “an ignoble expedient.”

Did Abraham think God didn’t know that the lands in the Negev were filled with pagans who did not fear God? Did Abraham think God needed to be helped out? Did Abraham not want to bother God with a prayer-petition for safety for his wife and himself? Or did Abraham just not trust God enough?

Let’s look at what Abraham’s lie did to himself and others. Then I’ll look at the sovereignty of God and how He worked through Abraham’s sinful lie.

Now, Sarah really was his sister, or half-sister to be specific. “she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.” (Genesis 20:12). So Abraham’s lie was a half-truth. Alternately it can be called a lie of omission. It is still a lie. Lies we tell have effects upon the people who hear them. In this case, Abimelek went forward with an action that was based on faulty information, and he took Sarah. Then night God came to him in a dream with a message. And the message was not good.

“Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” (Genesis 20:3b)

Thanks a lot, Abraham.

Now the King did plead with the LORD earnestly. I mean, Abimelek was told that she was not a wife. Here is where God’s sovereignty over ALL FLESH comes in.

“Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.” (Genesis 20:6)

God is sovereign and can and does control ALL that happens on earth and even within the hearts of men and allows or prevents certain actions. Example: God would not let Abimelek touch Sarah. Did God put a wall around Sarah or consign her to a room in chains far away from Abimelek? No. He invisibly ordained that Sarah would remain untouched and in His power He made that come to pass, even though the King, Sarah, and the entire household was not aware of His workings. This is Providence.

God told the King to release Sarah and not to touch her or the King would certainly die. Abimelek called all the servants together and told them all that had happened, and followed God’s commands immediately. (So much for NOT being God-fearing, eh? Not that the King was a believer, but the king did recognize God’s authority and His power, and submitted to it in this instance.)

Then the King severely rebuked Abraham.

“What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” (Genesis 20:9b-10).

That is the problem with lying. Not only did Abraham sin, not only did Abraham lead his wife into sin, but it caused the King to sin also, albeit unknowingly. He had a right to be angry. As did Pharaoh 25 years prior. Pulpit Commentary says of Abraham’s current lie and the 25 year old lie,

Abraham should a second time have resorted to this ignoble expedient after the hazardous experience of Egypt and the richly-merited rebuke of Pharaoh, but more especially after the assurance he had lately received of his own acceptance before God (Genesis 15:6), and of Sarah’s destiny to be the mother of the promised seed (Genesis 17:16), is well nigh unaccountable, and almost irreconcilable with any degree of faith and piety.

Of course we know Abraham was faithful and pious. (Hebrews 11:11). Our Bible is so great to show us the successes and the foibles and fumbles of the great men and women who are recounted in this record. We are all sinners, tending toward doing wrong most of the time, yet our God uses us again and again in His plan to move history forward to the end goal of displaying His glory to an unspotted Bride. Abraham was no different. But more gloriously, God is no different. He is totally sovereign over all that happens. After Abimelek gave Abraham 1000 pieces of silver, animals, and free passage through the land, he said you have been vindicated and this matter is concluded.

Just as God had promised Abimelek, (Genesis 20:7) Abraham then prayed to God on the King’s behalf (Genesis 20:17). God opened the wombs of all the women in the house of Abimelek because he had closed them on behalf of Sarah. God is sovereign over wombs, minds, flesh, and events. He is also merciful, in sparing Abimelek, in not punishing Abraham, in protecting Sarah, and in allowing the females of the house of Abimelek to conceive babies once again.

Genesis 20 is a tremendous chapter on the sinfulness of man, of what lies do to people (even lies of omission). Imagine what Abimelek might have been thinking. ‘Why would God pick THAT guy, he’s a liar.’ Do you want your witness on behalf of Holy God to be polluted by a legacy of lies?

The chapter is also a wonderful example of God’s sovereignty and Providential outworking, and His mercies.

Gill’s Exposition on Genesis 20:2-

And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she is my sister,…. This he gave out in all conversation he came into, and said it to every one that asked who she was, which was little better than a lie; it at least was an equivocation and deception, and not at all justifiable, and tended to expose his wife’s chastity, and discovered a distrust of divine Providence; the same infirmity be had given way to, and the same evil he had fallen into in Egypt, Genesis 12:11, and therefore was the more inexcusable now; good men not only fall into sin, but have their relapses:

BibleGateway’s All the Men of the Bible explains of Abimelek:

THE MAN WHO REBUKED ANOTHER FOR LYING

Abimelech would have taken Sarah, Abraham’s wife, into his harem, but learning that she was the wife of another, returned her uninjured. Abraham appears here in a bad light. He deceived Abimelech, but when found out was justly rebuked by the God-restrained Abimelech. Certainly the righteous should rebuke the ungodly (1 Tim. 5:20), but how sad it is when the ungodly have just reason for rebuking the righteous. What a degradation it was for Abraham, then, to be rebuked by a heathen king!

Abraham sought to palliate his deception by claiming that Sarah was actually his half sister, daughter of the same father but not the same mother (Gen. 20:12, 16).

A lie if half a truth Is ever the worst of lies.

Abraham was the more blameworthy because he had done the same thing before (Gen. 12) and had suffered much in the same way as upon this occasion. How grateful Abimelech was for the dream warning him of his danger! The covenant made with Abraham is somewhat significant—

I. It was proposed by Abimelech who, although knowing how Abraham had failed God, yet saw how favored he was of God (Gen. 21:22).

II. It revealed certain distrust of Abraham. Abimelech requested Abraham not to be tempted to sin in such a direction again (Gen. 21:23).

Wow, a pagan praying for the righteous!

We faithful Christians sure do have relapses. We are redeemed by, governed by, supported by, sustained by, and provided for by a gracious and loving God. He knows all the details, He is calmly in control of all that happens. He even forgives our sins (like when we lie). We don’t need to “help” God in His plans but we do need to submit to them. We need to remember that our actions and words affect other people. We need to have integrity in all that we do for Jesus (Colossians 3:17).

PS: trivia- did you know that Genesis 20 is the first time we read the word “prophet”? God said Abraham was His prophet. (Genesis 20:7). The Bible is so wonderful to read!

Posted in catholicism, pope francis, prophecy, wisdom

Biblical ignorance regarding the Pope is staggering (but not surprising)

Posted on by elizabethprata

LifeWay tweeted this out this morning:

Seth Dunn, a young Christian man whom I follow on Twitter, responded thus-

The United States’ Christians’ response to Pope Francis’ trip to our shores is sad but not surprising. End Time apostasy is growing and growing, metastasizing in fact, if you ask me.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, (1 Timothy 4:1)

Worse to swallow though is the massive biblical ignorance from the more conservative quarters, such as the LifeWay survey participants. Catholicism is NOT Christianity. The Protestant Reformation happened during the last year of the Middle Ages (1517) because of the protests from those who had come to see this fact and were willing to stand up and be heard. Christians protested the Catholic Church’s corruption of the Gospel, its stranglehold on the people, and the depravity of the papacy & priesthood. We are still protesting, or should be. Yet according to the survey above, those who should know better are accepting, not protesting. They are joining, not separating. The blood of all the true Christians martyred at the hands of the Pope and his henchmen cries out from the ground against this blasphemy and this defection.

On the other hand it is not surprising that it seems that only 37% or less of pastors surveyed actually hold to biblical doctrine. Many of you faithful and lovely readers email or comment or contact me on Facebook in your pain and confusion over the rapid loss of biblical truth in your church and who mourn the defection of your own husband-pastor-deacons-women’s leaders-church from the true faith. Anyone who worships in a church which preaches solidly in these days seems to be in the minority.

Wikimedia commons

It seems to be the way of flesh and it seems to be the way of the prophecies that this would happen. See this from Hosea of the people Israel after they got comfortable subsequent to the Exodus,

When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. (Hosea 13:6)

See this similar behavior from Revelation of the wealthy and satisfied church at Laodicea,

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. (Rev 3:17).

See this rebuke from God to His people Israel for having rejected His knowledge,

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. (Hosea 4:6).

See this similar pattern in the New Testament-

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. (Romans 8:7)

Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. (1 Corinthians 14:36-38).

It is prophesied that what is happening will happen. The prophecies of mass defection from sound doctrine are many, as is the past behavior of a myriad of peoples all throughout time in the Bible.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, (2 Timothy 4:3).

And 2 Timothy 3:1, Jude 1:18, 1 Timothy 4:1 and many other verses also speak to the professing believer’s refusal to submit the flesh to sound doctrine and that they will go astray, revealing they were only professors and not genuine after all.

Here are some resources regarding the hopeless religion Catholicism is. And keep studying your bible so!!

The Beginning of Knowledge 
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:1-7)

Resources; and there are many more at each of these sites besides just the three listed here,

Mike Gendron, ex-Catholic Apologist:-
False Prophet praised as Holy Father

Matt Slick, Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry-
Attaining salvation in Roman Catholicism

John MacArthur, Grace To You-
Explaining the heresy of Catholicism

Posted in lot, open door, prophecy, sin

A tale of two doors

Posted on by elizabethprata
EPrata photo

I was reading 2 Thessalonians and I read this verse from 2 Thessalonians 2:5-7,

Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.

I’d always focused on extracting the meaning from the part of the verse that says “he who restrains” but this time I was focused on the “mystery of lawlessness.” My mind began to question. “Why is lawlessness a mystery? The Bible speaks of sinfulness often. That’s what sinfulness is, lawlessness. So why is it a mystery? We’ve been living with it for 6000 years…”

I find that asking questions of myself about the meaning helps me dig deeper. I’m not speaking of doubting the meaning. Nor am I suggesting I am questioning God’s judgment. I am asking myself what, who, when, where, why questions like a journalist would do to get at the truth of a story. ‘Why is this word here? Who was Paul writing to? Why is his tone so abrupt? What is the city or geographical location? What was the context?’ Those kinds of questions.

So why is lawlessness a mystery? Let’s hold that thought while I take you down another line of inquiry and then I’ll tie the two together.

I was listening to a John MacArthur sermon last Saturday morning. It was titled, “Heaven: The Future of Christians.” In the sermon MacArthur was talking about salvation and the process of getting into heaven. He explained this verse:

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12)

He said of the narrow way, the small door of Matthew 7:14, that it’s hard to go through. “Why? Why is it so hard?” He’d said-

“First, it’s hard to find because it’s small, second, to go through you have to strive. You have to agonize. You have to be violent about it. You have to press into it…”

It is hard to go through the door of repentance. It is the most difficult thing a person will ever do. Turning your back on your own wickedness and lawlessness is agonizing over our sin nature and violence because one is turning one’s back on one’s self. It is hating not just the sin IN us, but our very selves because sin is our very nature.

In a different sermon but on the same verse, Matthew 7:13-14 and the narrow door, MacArthur paints a picture of the struggle to come to repentance and salvation-

So Jesus says in Matthew 11:12, “The Kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.” What amazing words. There’s a certain violence in coming to salvation. You’re in the throes of a war and a battle with your own soul to release your love of sin and self and pride. It’s a wrenching experience. Luke 16:16 says, “Every man presses into it.”

Becoming a Christian is not easy. It’s hard. Another way to say all that is that the Kingdom opens up to those who seek with all their hearts. You’re not going to sleep your way into the Kingdom. The Kingdom requires earnest endeavor, untiring energy, utmost exertion.

Pressing into the door with all exertion and violence. His word-pictures brought to mind another door that people were pressing into.

The door to Lot’s house at Sodom.

The men who were deep in sin and given over to it were pressing into the door with violence and all exertion. Here is the scene at Genesis 19:9-11.

EPrata photo

But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. 10But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

The men were immersed in their sin-nature and they exhausted themselves trying to go through the door to perform their sin. They wanted to go through the door from bad to worse. The penitent person wants to go through the door from worse to best.

In referring back to the Matthew 11:12 verse,

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

I’d always pondered over that scene at Lot’s hose. The men had obviously experienced something supernatural, they’d all just been struck blind. But their sin was so potent they still tried to beat down the door with violence. This is a peek at the mystery of lawlessness.

Lawlessness is a mystery because mystery means veiled from our full perception. We know that in 1 Corinthians 13:12 we see through a mirror dimly

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

We can’t fully comprehend the mystery of Jesus, the mystery of the heights and the depths of His glory, the mystery of his perfections. It is partly veiled from us. It is the same with sin. The full height and depth of sin is partially hidden from us. This fullness will come when the Man of Sin is revealed, who is the antichrist. We have a sense of the mystery of lawlessness now, because John said there are many antichrists. We know from history what Hitler did. But sin can be and will be so much worse than that when it’s full expression is revealed in the Tribulation, embodied by the man whose nickname IS sin.

Just as Jesus’ glory is infinitely beautiful, so is sin infinitely gross and putrid. The fullness of sin’s depravity is hidden from us and its full expression is not revealed … yet. We see sin through a mirror dimly.

This essay is the tale of two doors. The door to salvation which the penitent presses into, exerts himself toward with violence. Then there is the door to sin which the impenitent presses into, exerts himself toward with violence. They exhaust themselves groping for the door to the next layer of descending depravity, the depths of which is bottomless like the pit where the worst of the demons are being held in chains, restrained from expressing themselves until the time of Revelation 9:2 arrives.

The path is wide and leads to a big door, or the path is narrow and leads to a small door. My hope is that many more will press into the small gate and change from goat to sheep. Use all exertion, violence and pressing into repentance, forsaking all behind, even yourself.

Posted in holy spirit, police, prophecy, restrainer

America’s legal order begins to fray. And, police are one of the common graces God gives us

Posted on by elizabethprata

The Bible says that the inclination of man’s heart is always evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5, Romans 3:12).

The Bible says that God’s wrath is already upon the world. (Romans 1:18, Ephesians 5:6).

Jesus said that the coming Great Tribulation will be the worst time on earth that ever was and ever will be. (Matthew 24:21).

So, if man is evil and His wrath is already upon the world, why is it that we don’t have complete and total anarchy all the time?

There is a difference between types of wrath.

  • Eternal wrath– this is the wrath that unbelievers endure in the Lake of Fire forever, (Mark 9:48)
  • Eschatological wrath– this is the wrath that will be unleashed upon the world prior to Jesus’ Second Coming, the one spoken of in Matthew 24
  • Cataclysmic wrath– The Flood, the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeobiim, the historical times when a cataclysm occurred such as Vesuvius erupting in 79AD or the Christmas Tsunami of 2004,
  • Sowing and Reaping wrath– such as AIDS upon the homosexual,
  • Abandonment wrath– when God turns a society over to its sin.

You can read more about these five kinds of wrath here in this MacArthur sermon “The Reality of God’s Wrath.”

The second answer to my own posed question as to why the earth doesn’t descend into anarchy all the time is because The Holy Spirit restrains sin. He does so through four means-

  • Conscience
  • Family 
  • Legal Order
  • Church/Holy Spirit in believers (source)

It seems that in America, the conscience of many people is seared. The acceptance of homosexuality and homosexual marriage and the defense of the Planned Parenthood videos shows us that. As for the family, satan has done a good job in destroying the foundation of it by feminism, abortion, and no-fault divorce. Also he has chipped away at it by the pollution that destroys families of teenage and adult indiscriminate sexual activity, molestation of children, society’s acceptance of unmarrieds living together, and porn.

As for law enforcement, Satan is currently doing a good and evil job destroying our trust in this basic foundational block of one of the means through which the Spirit restrains sin in society. Of late, there have been a number of tragic murders of law enforcement personnel across the nation.

America’s Legal Order Begins to Fray
Amid the escalation of violent crime are signs of a breakdown of basic respect for law enforcement.

Jim McDonnell, head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the nation’s largest, tells me that the current anticop animus puts the nation in a place where it hasn’t been since the 1960s. “The last 10 years have witnessed dramatic decreases in crime,” Sheriff McDonnell says. “Now, in a short period of time, we are seeing those gains undone.”

The current hatred of police/law enforcement in America, the overt disrespect, with the attendant killings of cops has prompted the question, “is there a war on cops?” Certainly, the statistics indicate something going on, but maybe not what one wold think by looking only at the surface. Yes, cop killings have doubled this year, but that only seems high because last year was the safest year for law enforcement in history. By comparison to only last year, it seems that more police are being killed, but the numbers remain consistent with most of previous history excluding last year. (Source)

Yet…yet…the more measured Wall Street Journal notes that–

“The lawful use of police power is being met by hostility and violence, often ignored by the press. In Cincinnati, a small riot broke out in late July when the police arrived at a drive-by shooting scene, where a 4-year-old girl had been shot in the head and critically injured. Bystanders loudly cursed at officers who had started arresting suspects at the scene on outstanding warrants, according to a witness I spoke with.” 

Jim McDonnell, head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the nation’s largest, tells me that the current anticop animus puts the nation in a place where it hasn’t been since the 1960s. “The last 10 years have witnessed dramatic decreases in crime,” Sheriff McDonnell says. “Now, in a short period of time, we are seeing those gains undone.” 

Police officials I have spoken with in recent months say that they long to hear America’s leaders change the tone of the national conversation before respect for the rule of law itself deteriorates further. They’re still waiting.

Personally I don’t remember this level of hatred for law and its representative, police. I know there is a general feeling that justice is not prevailing, and perhaps people are lashing out for that reason. Perhaps a lot of reasons, but mainly, remember that nations exist because God ordains them, and each inhabitant of that nations populates it because God ordains it.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, (Acts 17:26).

The Holy Spirit converts each person and dwells inside them as the restrainer, there’s the conscience, and there’s the visible representation of God’s family on earth for the purpose of making disciples and bringing glory to God through their worship. How about the civil authority? Here John MacArthur explains the biblical basis for civil authority and how God restrains evil in the world:

Biblically, the prime duty of civil authority – if you look at the Bible, the Old Testament and New Testament – it’s not charity, it’s not economics. The primary duty of civil authority is the moral well-being of its citizens. It is restraining sinners and rewarding those who do good so that we can be civilized; enjoy a measure of peace and joy in life and God’s creation.  

The civil government uses an even increased threat. The law of God in the heart has a threat, conscience, which will pile guilt on. The family has a threat, the rod, which will discipline the disobedient child. Civil government has an even greater force, even a deadly force if necessary. Civil government is a God-ordained institution to restrain sinners.

We have the nation of America where the personal conscience is seared, where family is breaking

down and being redefined away from the biblical model, and we have a growing rebellion against civil authority. Knowing that God uses these as a restraint against evil, the removal of these is not a good progression, to make a typical Yankee understatement.

I remember an episode of Andy Griffith called Lawman Barney. The show hearkens back to a more innocent time, and most of the problems presented during the course of the show were small compared to our day and were usually resolved by an aw shucks attitude and a sweet appeal to the conscience.

In the show, two big men had set up an illegal farm stand within Mayberry’s jurisdiction. Andy sent Barney to tell them to move on. The men refused.

Andy went out to where the men were. Unbenownst to Barney, Andy told the men that he was going to send his mad-dog, volatile Deputy to move them along, and after a scary speech Andy asked for their next of kin in case things went wrong.

Andy did send Barney out there and the men, remembering Andy’s speech, hastily packed up and took off. Barney was elated.

Later as the men stopped at the local filling station, where Floyd the Barber was getting a pop, they happened to mention the mad-dog deputy, and all the filling station men and Floyd laughed at such a thought, scoffing about Barney in front of the men. The men turned the truck around and went back to set up their stand.

Floyd came to the Police station and laughingly told Andy about the silly notion the stranger men had about Barney, while Barney was in the back room, overhearing. Andy vowed to go out there and stop the men. Barney asked Andy why he wasn’t going to take his gun. Below, starting at 18:37, is the rest of the story.

Barney: Andy?
Andy: Yeah?
Barney: Ain’t ya going to take your gun?
Andy: I’ll get them out without a gun. Like you said earlier, this badge does all my talking for me. I’m sworn to uphold the law and that’s what I mean to do. Folks better respect it. Simple as that.

On the ride to the site, Barney asked Andy to let him handle the men.

Barney: Fellas. I warned you before and I’m warning you for the last time. You take your truck and you get out of here.
Perps: [remain where they are.]
Barney: This is the Deputy Sheriff talking. So git moving. Now!
Perps: [move closer to Barney]
Barney: Do you see this badge? It says that I’m sworn to uphold the law.
Perps: [move closer to Barney and bookend him]
Barney: Now that’s what I mean to do and you fellers better respect it. Understand? It’s just as simple as that.
Perps: [tower intimidatingly over Barney and glower at him]
Barney: [looking up at each of them] You’re both a lot bigger’n I am. But this badge represents a lot of people that are a lot bigger than either one of you. Now are you going to get moving?

Of course today a gun is necessary and there are much worse perps than illegal fruit stand men. But Law Enforcement is about the authority police have to protect citizenry from mayhem and to ensure a peaceable community. Police restrain evil sinners by the authority given them. It’s why you see them show their badge and say “stop in the name of the law.” They don’t say “stop in the name of Phil”.

When the general population’s respect and restraint of their own evil under that authority disappears it’s because they no longer see the police as representative of the greater authority. This is when mayhem will occur. I believe that this is happening now. It’s why teenagers or even adults get into a flash mob and overrun a store, vandalizing and stealing with impunity. The following Bible verse ends the sad story of a nation that threw off civil restraint and immediately descended into moral anarchy. They formed a plan to get wives by kidnapping/raping the dancers at Shiloh and carrying them off. Why?

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)

Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible  explains:

In those days there was no king in Israel,…. No supreme magistrate, Joshua being dead, and as yet no judge in Israel had risen up; for all related in the five last chapters of this book were done between the death of Joshua and the time of the judges: every man did that which was right in his own eyes; there being none to restrain him from it, or punish him for it; and this accounts for the many evil things related, as the idolatry of Micah and the Danites, the base usage of the Levite’s concubine, the extreme rigour and severity with which the Israelites treated their brethren the Benjaminites, the slaughter of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead, and the rape of the daughters of Shiloh.

When there’s no respect for authority the nation has set over the people, and/or no fear of punishment and you have the very expression of the verse I began this essay with: every man’s thoughts were of only evil all the time. Those thoughts don’t stay thoughts though. they become actions.

The final restraint God uses in the world is the church with its Holy Spirit-dwelling believers. And one day God will remove that restraint, also:

Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:5-7).

Here is an article from Martyn Lloyd-Jones on common grace and the operations of the Holy Spirit in society. I recommend reading it in its entirety here. Or listen here.

God, through the Holy Spirit, restrains the foulest manifestations of sin, but there are times when He gives people up to them. Are we, I wonder, living in such an age? Compare the twentieth century with the nineteenth. It is obvious that the moral level is very much lower today. That does not mean that everybody was a Christian in the Victorian era, but it does mean that even people who were not Christians were better men and women, speaking generally, than people now. Why? 

It was because of the general influence of the Holy Spirit. But it does look as if again, today, God is giving humanity over ‘unto vile affections’ as Paul outlines in Romans 1. Therefore I deduce that one of the results of the operation of the Holy Spirit in common grace is that God does restrain men and women. He does specifically restrain sin. That is why God has appointed governments, authorities, magistrates and powers: it is to keep sin within bounds. Though God knows that there are certain people in the world who will never be saved, He does not allow them to live just as they please and to give fuller manifestation to sin; He restrains it in them.

We have a magnificent God who uses all these means, including law enforcement, to restrain evil on our behalf, when we certainly do not deserve it. Did you ever stop to think that Law Enforcement Officers are an expression of the Lord’s common graces? Pray for our Officers of the Law.

Sirs . . . we also are men of like passion with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities [these gods] unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: who in times past suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. (Acts 14:15–17)

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Further Reading

Officer Down Memorial Page

Posted in church age, jesus, millennial kingdom, prophecy, rapture

What is ‘heaven’? Is it the Millennial Kingdom?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Sunday, I began a series looking at what the Bible says is heaven. There is more to is than just saying “if we’re redeemed we’re going to heaven.” Heaven is a term used synonymously for God. There is Paradise, where Jesus went between His death and resurrection (most likely). There’s the present heaven containing the redeemed souls. There will be a Millennium Kingdom. And then there will be the new heaven/eternity after the chapter of human history concludes. So let’s take a look at this wonderful, complex, eternal, real place called HEAVEN.

Previously I examined the terms “Abraham’s Bosom”, and Paradise. Today, let’s look at the Millennium Kingdom.

When we think of “heaven” we often think of the peaceable kingdom spoken of in Isaiah and depicted in Edward Hicks’ 62 versions of the Peaceable Kingdom paintings of the early 1830s.

Hicks’ series of images are based on Isaiah 11:6-8 and Isaiah 65:25. Here in the first line we see the correct part of the verse, commonly mis-spoken as “the lion shall lay down with the lamb”.

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
7Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

 8The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.

 9They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
As the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD. (Isaiah 65:25)

But even though all seems idyllic, this is not heaven. It is not even the new earth spoken of in 2 Peter 3:13.

Here is an overview of Bible history from the Days of His Flesh to future eternity. We are in the church age at present. These illustrations are from a pamphlet by Fred Overton Seminars. Click to enlarge.

The wolf shall lie down with the lamb during the Kingdom Age, which shall last for 1000 years. This is why it’s called “The Millennium Kingdom”, due to its prophesied length of time.

You see by the chart that we are in the Church Age. At some point, when the final elect soul will be redeemed, filling the quota Jesus has set for filling His church (Romans 11:25), we will be raptured. The trumpet will sound, and we who are living will fly upward and our bodies will be glorified instantly. The souls of the dead who died during the Church Age will also be resurrected and installed into a reconstituted glorified body and together we will meet Jesus in the air. It all hapens in the blink of an eye. This is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52.

The Lord removes His Bride via the “catching up” because after that He will unleash His stored-up wrath onto an unbelieving world. The 7-year Tribulation will begin. The Bride is not appointed to wrath, so we are removed. (1 Thessalonians 5:9; Revelation 3:10).

[Note to readers- I do not plan to debate the pretribulation rapture in the comments section. The pretribulation rapture is a biblical concept and can be learned of in many different studies here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for starters!)

Of the Tribulation, Jesus said it will be the worst time on earth human flesh has ever known. (Matthew 24:21-22). This should give one pause, because He already has sent a worldwide judgment in the form of the Flood to drown everything with the breath of life, including almost all of humanity (except for Noah’s family aboard the Ark.) So the Tribulation will be worse.

Yet for all the horror predicted to befall the unbelieving world, many people will be redeemed and come to faith in Jesus during this Great Tribulation. Many of those will not die during the judgments, and when Jesus returns in the Second Coming, they will enter alive into the Kingdom Jesus will set up for 1000 years.

During the Tribulation, massive earth changes occur. This is actually UNcreation, or a reversal back to the original state of the earth prior to the Fall of Man during Adam and Eve’s time. The Flood reshaped the earth’s form. (Psalm 104:6-9). During the Tribulation, Mountains are flattened, islands flee away (Revelation 6:12-14). Great earthquakes occur, sending the earth back to its original shape and form. Think of the Tribulation as a renovation of the earth, or a re-shaping.

During the Millennium Kingdom period, earth is renovated, but not perfected.

  • Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. (Isaiah 40:4)
  • The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. (Ezekiel 38:20)
  • The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. (Nahum 1:5)
  • And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. (Revelation 16:20)
  • Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified. (Isaiah 60:21)
  • Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;  (Isaiah 35:5-6)
  • No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. (Isaiah 65:20)
  • And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. (Ezekiel 34:26) [Source Overton Seminars]

Jesus personally rules and reigns on earth from His Temple! If you read Ezekiel 40-48, especially Ezekiel 43:1-9, it is a description of the restored Temple and life on earth with Jesus as the center of worship. The Milennium Kingdom is the fulfillment of all His promises to Israel. Their will Messiah ruling among them, their lands are given to them, their life revolves around Jesus, who they have since recognized as THE promised King.

The animals are peaceful, there is no curse to make them have the fear and dread of man as happened after the Fall. (Genesis 9:2).

One of folk artist Edward Hicks’ 62 Peaceable Kingdom paintings

However, remember that when the Great Tribulation ended at His Second Coming, there were believers alive who entered the Kingdom? These people are mortal. They live long lives. They have babies and they live long lives. As the verse from Isaiah 65:20 says above, if such a one dies at age 100, they all say what a shame he died so young.

During this period, satan and his demons are bound in the abyss-jail. They are not present on earth to trouble mortal humans who are living in the Kingdom age and of course he is not bothering the us, the redeemed/glorified either. Jesus is ruling, David is reigning, people are living long lives, and there is no satan to bother them. How perfect!

Not so fast. The mortals born during the Kingdom Age will certainly enjoy peaceful Messianic rule, a non-cursed animal realm, and no temptations by satan or his demons- but they will still possess a sin nature. During the peaceful Milennium Kingdom, sin will be present. Hidden, but present.

At the end of the Milennium Age Satan is let out of the jail along with his demons. Satan quickly draws out the venomous sin that is in people, and believe it or not, they rebel against Jesus. It’s depressing to see how fast that satan can draw people to his side again, and not just a few either. All this is recorded in Revelation 20. Here is an excerpt.

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:7-10).

That is why the Milennium Age which occurs subsequent to the Great Tribulation and Second Coming is not “heaven”. It looks like it. It seems like it. But it isn’t. Sin is still present. Satan still has power to deceive. People still reject Jesus.

After the Millennial rebellion is put down, the Great White Throne Judgment occurs. This is when all the unredeemed dead of all ages are resurrected and judged according to their works. It’s the final dealing with sin. They are thrown into the Lake of Fire along with satan and his demons to begin their eternal punishment in their eternal bodies. Hell and Death are also thrown into the Lake of Fire too. The earth is melted in a fervent heat and completely remade. (2 Peter 3:10).

Remember, at the end of the Tribulation as the mortals entered the Millennium Kingdom, the earth still contained graves and bones. It still had death upon it. The Lord remakes earth completely new, and the heavens too. No taint of sin or death or hell will ever touch it again.

Tomorrow, the difference between the Present Heaven and the Future Heaven which is the Eternal State.

May these things encourage you and spark you to delve further into the wonderful promises of Jesus the Christ for His people!

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Heaven introduction

Heaven part 1

Randy Alcorn’s Eternal Perspective Ministries

Talking to Your Children about Creation, Christ, and Heaven

Theological definition of heaven

Heaven: FALSE views of heaven

Sermon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Death and Heaven

Posted in elam, end time, iran, joel c. rosenberg, last days, nuclear, prophecy, uranium

"Iran says finds unexpectedly high uranium reserve"

Posted on by elizabethprata

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran has discovered an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium and will soon begin extracting the radioactive element at a new mine, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said on Saturday. … After decades of efforts, Iran – which has consistently said its program is for peaceful purposes – has achieved a full nuclear fuel cycle, ranging from the extraction of uranium ore to enrichment and production of fuel rods for nuclear reactors. (source)

Immediately prior to this news, just days before in fact, Joel C. Rosenberg had published a bulleted list/factsheet regarding the danger the Iranian Government poses to the world. He lists the Iranian statement of beliefs and intents, especially with regard to wiping out Israel the the US. He lists past and very current statements that Iran intends at all costs to go forward with their dastardly and evil plan to rule the world and wipe out Christians and Jews.

Fact Sheet: The Iranian Leadership’s Apocalyptic Beliefs Joel C. Rosenberg Updated: September 4, 2015
What Iran’s Leaders & Allies Say They Will Do: Annihilate America

• “The slogans of the Iranian nation on Al-Qods Day show what its position is. The slogans ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to America’ have resounded throughout the country, and are not limited to Tehran and the other large cities. The entire country is under the umbrella of this great movement [of ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to America’].”—Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, July 18, 2015.

And now we discover that they had access to uranium all along.
And now we discover Iran has achieved a full nuclear fuel cycle.

We know from prophecy that Iran plays an important role in God’s plan of judgment. What does the bible say about Persia at the end of time?

The word of the LORD came to me: 2“Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him 3and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. 4And I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords. 5Persia, Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-togarmah from the uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes—many peoples are with you. (Ezekiel 37:1-6)

It is interpreted that of course Persia is Iran. That one is easy because Persia held the name until 1935 when the Shah asked foreign dignitaries to use the name Iran, the name the people themselves used.

Map of Achaemenid Persian Empire at its Greatest Extent (490 BC.) Source

The ancient name for the Persians, which was a name used until the early 1935 before it was changed to Iran, was Elam. People in the tribe of Elam were Elamites.

Elam is first mentioned in Genesis 10:22 as a son of Shem. Shem was Noah’s son. Elam was a real person, Noah’s grandson. You remember the early sons went out and founded tribes. This is recorded as a Table of Nations in Genesis 10. Answers In Genesis has an article with the table, which is like a genealogical family tree but of nations and not individuals. Click to enlarge. You will notice the same names on the Table as are recorded as the nations that fight at the time of the end. Togarmah, Gomer, Tubal…those guys all there at the beginning and their founded nations are there at the end. God is very precise.

The following points regarding Elam/Persia/Iran are from Bible History Online

The Persian Empire was founded by Cyrus in 536 BC., after they succeeded the Babylonian Empire. The first king of the Persian Empire was Cyrus, who issued the famous decree for the Jews to return to their homeland to rebuild their Temple. 

Under Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great, the Persian Empire eventually became the largest and most powerful empire in human history up until that point. The Persian Empire represented the world’s first global superpower.

The capital of the Persian Empire was Shushan. The Empire lasted about 200 years, and came to an end in 330 BC.

From Negev, A. (1990). In The Archaeological encyclopedia of the Holy Land:

 ELAM a) The biblical name of a hilly country, ‘Elamtu’ in Accadian, east of the River Tigris (Hiddekel) bordered by Assyria (Mesopotamia) and Madai on the north, the Persian Gulf on the south and Persia on the east and southeast. Its capital was Susa (Shushan). Most of our knowledge of it derives from Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian sources.

There was a constant state of war between Elam and the kingdoms of Lagash and Assyria. By the end of the 2nd millennium BC the Elamites had succeeded in deposing the Sumerian Dynasty of Ur. According to Genesis (14) Chedorlaomer, King of Elam, ruled over all the countries which were formerly under the yoke of Babylon, and the countries on the Jordan were his tributaries.

Abram Rescues Lot
14 In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, hat they made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). (Genesis 14:1-2).

From DD Lowery in his book Elam,

The fall of Elam was foretold by Jeremiah (49:34–9) and by Ezekiel (32:24–5). During the period of the Persian Empire Elam was one of the satrapies, with Susa as its capital. Elamites who had been settled in Samaria impeded the Jews who returned from the Babylonia exile (Ezra 4:8–9).

ELAM (עֵילַם, eilam). An ancient Near Eastern kingdom located in Iran. A rival to the Mesopotamian kingdoms for over 2,000 years. The Elamite Empire influenced many great empires that shaped the biblical world. Over its long history, Elam interacted with the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and the Assyrians. Under the Persians, Susa—one of Elam’s great cities—makes several biblical appearances.

Biblical Mentions 

Kedorlaomer, king of Elam, appears in Gen 14 as the king whom Abram defeats to bring Lot and his family back home. The next occurrences in the Bible are not until the prophets and the exile. In the biblical text, Elam appears as a prophetic instrument of judgment (Isa 21:2; 22:6), as the object of judgment (Jer 49:34–38), and also as an object lesson for those yet to be judged (Ezek 32:24–25). Assyria deported many Israelites to Elam upon conquering it, which sets the stage for Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. According to Acts 2:9, a Jewish population still remained in Elam into the New Testament period. 

Determining how close the connection was between these earlier peoples and later Elamites remains difficult. Archaeology has shed light on many originally distinct groups during this period, most notably from Elam (Fars) and Susa, which come to be associated together later in history. 

End of Elam (Achaemenid Period, 539–331 BC): Elam Absorbed by Persia. Elam was geographically reduced to Susiana by the Assyrians, and the Medes and the Persians were firmly rooted in the Plateau. When Cyrus II (Cyrus the Great) conquered Babylonia (539) and established the great Persian Empire, Elam (Susiana) fell into Persian hands, becoming a valuable Persian province. The Persians inherited many characteristic traits from the Elamites, who continued to serve in various administrative roles under them. In fact, archives of Elamite clay tablets have been found in Persepolis—an important Persian center—from late in the reign of Darius to that of Artaxerxes (late fifth century). These shed considerable light on the political and cultural atmosphere of the time.
Under Darius, Susa became a prominent city in the empire. Here, set up as the winter citadel for the Persian Empire, that the biblical book of Nehemiah begins, and where Esther is also set. Recent archaeological discoveries in Susa have given clarification to the book of Esther. However, by this time, “Susa, in the province of Elam” (Dan 8:2) had ceased to be anything but the shell of Elam that it once was

Lowery, D. D. (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015). Elam. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

When we read of the Elamites being comprised of many different Mesopotamian peoples, it is so. At Pentecost, we’re told that “staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.” (Acts 2:5).

Including:

Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, (Acts 2:9).

Now in the latter days, a glorious thing will happen.

In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

The LORD has a remnant of His people inside the lands that we read about in the news today. How glorious it will be when He restores them! Daniel had a vision of the end time/last days of the very last days, in which he saw the Elamites-

And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. (Daniel 8:2).

On September 7 I posted a prescient quote from 1967 by S. Lewis Johnson regarding his long-ago perspective of seeing the ascendancy of Biblical nations. The Iranian rise is nothing to be surprised at nor worried about in this day and age. God is incredible and His hand works all that He wills. The things which were prophesied for thousands of years are coming to pass, and will come to pass, because God decreed it.

More to the individual point, when we read of rabid hatred contained in speeches by Iranians declaring death to America and death to Israel, let us not hate them back. In those nations, though there are many Muslims and many false Christians such as Orthodox, a few remnant Christ people dwell. They are being prepared to receive the calling when He deems it the right moment. Some already have been called, and others will become … our brethren.

God deals in remnants. That is His way. And God does mighty things through remnants. 300 against Midian. Two against the Philistine army. 7,000 among the millions in Israel. 120 on Pentecost. A handful of Puritans coming to the shores of North America 400 years ago.

And in our time, faithful men and women in many parts of the world who have left apostate churches meet in tents, homes, schools, libraries, firehouses, storefronts, the buildings of liberal churches, and even less likely places. In countries like Zimbabwe in Africa, men and women who have left the bondage of false religions often meet under the shade of a tree in an otherwise forbidding landscape to worship the one true and living God and hear His Word preached.

Men and women around the world meet in unlikely places, sometimes coming incredible distances on foot just to be together. God’s remnant is truly an unlikely assembly. But His people come together because they understand that it is not numbers, or a building, or other trappings that are of true importance – but the truth as it is found only in Christ and His Word. They understand that it is “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). source

God is mighty and wonderful. Praise His name!

Posted in ammon, bible lands, jerusalem, jordan, prophecy

The ascendancy of the ancient biblical powers

Posted on by elizabethprata

S. Lewis Johnson was a pastor, teacher, and theologian who lived from 1915 to 2004. He was a wonderful expositor and blessedly, his sermons are archived and available for free at the SLJ Institute from Believers Chapel, the church he pastored for many years.

In 1967 he began a series expositing the text verse-by-verse from Zechariah. In the second sermon of the series, he said something I appreciated. From his own vantage point, having lived through most of the twentieth century and into the 21st, he saw a lot of history. In 1945, Israel was reborn, an astounding prophetic fulfillment. (Isaiah 66:8). In 1967, the year Pastor Johnson preached this prophecy series, Israel was reunited with Jerusalem after their miraculous win of the Six Day War.

‎In this portion of the Medeba Map (“the Madaba Mosaic Map”), the Greek letters in red above Jerusalem say, “Holy City, Jerusa___”; the final characters are missing. ‎Image by David Bjorgen, from Wikimedia Commons.

Johnson was a young adult when the Second World War broke out. He has seen the ascendancy of Britain and the Allied powers, Europe at its most powerful, and the ancient biblical empires all but forgotten. However after WWII all that changed. Here is Pastor Lewis.

In this particular sermon, Johnson said,

Now, the other astonishing thing, which may have some relation to it, is the reappearance and re-emergence of the ancient biblical powers. I know when I first started studying the Bible twenty-five years ago(in 1942) and read of Egypt, and Ammon, and Moab, and Persia, and Assyria. And noticed the tremendous prominence that they had in the prophetic portions of the word of God, I wondered if it were even conceivable credible if such a thing could really come to pass in our day that these powers should become powers again. And today as we open up the newspapers we read of Syria, of Lebanon; we read of Iran, which is ancient Persia; we read of Iraq, which is more or less Assyria; we read of Jordan, which is more or less Ammon and Moab; we read of Egypt, and of course, now, and perhaps most remarkable of all we read of Israel. Is there a connection between the eclipse of Europe and the re-emergence of the Middle East as significant in world history? … It is remarkable this connection. In other words, God marches on to the consummation of his program and time is his servant.

I don’t have any technical fine points of anything in the discernment department. I don’t have any profound insights for encouraging you. But I hope the mere fact of the pendulum of history marching inexorably toward prophetic fulfillment of all that the great I AM has said and the knowledge that God is supreme master of His own plan encourages you. It does me.

To Your Name Give Glory

1Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

2Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
(Psalm 115:1-3)

Posted in anger, millennium, prophecy, rapture

Soon there will be no fence-sitters

Posted on by elizabethprata

One thing this time of blasphemy and apostasy is doing is outing the hidden haters of Jesus to declare for satan. In the end, nothing will be hidden. (1 Cor 4:5). It seems that great numbers of people are being shifted, inched, nudged, or pushed into one side or another.

After the rapture, during the ensuing Tribulation period, there will be absolutely no hidden Christians and no hidden atheists. All will be forced to declare one way or another. (Rev 13:16). Meanwhile at the present time, we see more and more hared of Jesus on earth.

“it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” Matthew 15:11

Matthew Henry: “Christ shows that the defilement they ought to fear, was not from what entered their mouths as food, but from what came out of their mouths, which showed the wickedness of their hearts.”

Source

There is a great gulf that is fixed. (Luke 16:26). In time past, in the present time, and in the end of the end, none will cross from one side to the other. One must declare for Jesus while living. (Romans 10:9). Failure to declare, (Matthew 10:32; 1 John 4:15) or deliberately proclaiming blasphemies against Jesus, (1 Cor 12:3) is the sin unto death. (1 John 5:17).

Nowadays to me, it feels like a parallel to the prophesied time as the Millennial Kingdom is about to come to a close. After the 7-year Tribulation ends, there is a period of 1000 years when Jesus physically rules on earth. (Revelation 20:4). This is known as the millennial kingdom when all the promises Jesus made to His people Israel are fulfilled spiritually and physically with the full lands being given to them and His personal attendance in a renewed Temple (Ezekiel 41). At the end of the 1000 years of Jesus’ kingdom rule on earth, where sin had been subdued and satan had been locked up, but where there still have been mortals born, satan will be let out of his abyss jail and he will deceive the nations. It takes satan but a moment to draw the wicked to himself, immediately exposing the wickedness in their hearts that had been there all along. (Revelation 20:7-9). It feels like that now, with satan accelerating his evil doings to draw more and more people to himself. The cup of heart-poison overflows in many and shows in their words and deeds.

The great shifting of peoples hearts is the movement toward Jesus or away from Jesus. When the rapture occurs, the believers from the beginning at the time from the beginning of the church age (Jesus’ ascension) the very rapturous trumpet call will be resurrected or those who are alive will be lifted up and all will meet in the air to be with Jesus. Those remaining on earth will be those who chose not to believe. There will still be time for some of them to come to faith afterward, but the Church Age ends at the rapture with the last believer filling God’s quota of His church coming to faith. (Romans 11:25).

Then the 1000-year Kingdom, then the new heaven and earth, and the eternal state with the final Judgment of all humans.

source

At the end the gulf between those who believe and those who do not will be exposed and settled at the Great White Throne Judgment. (Revelation 20:11-15) when all who have ever lived will give an account and receive their final body and their punishment will begin.

Wicked hearts are surely being shown today in great numbers. The venom that is in them is spilling out of mouths that deliberately or unknowingly proclaim for satan. We see it in their hatred of Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue homosexual marriage licenses. We see it in their hypocrisy against Christian football player Tim Tebow but worldly acceptance and lauding of Bruce Jenner’s depraved gender switch. We see it in the new Deist/Atheist Declaration of Sinlessness, blasphemies against Jesus, mob anger, violence. All this is in the heart, and is now coming out in torrents. They are storing up their sin for themselves.

EPrata photo

We see it on blogs and comment sections, where hair-trigger anger and hatred is not even buried under a veneer of scoffing and sneering, but immediately boils over into anger and hate. There is no ‘ramping up’ anymore during a discussion. All discussions of Christian things seem to begin with a basis of anger, even among people who claim Christianity. We see venomous hearts exposed more and more and more and more.

Yet…there is One heart that is pure and undefiled, that is Jesus.

“For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name.” (Psalms 33:21)

Bless His holy name, He is coming soon.