Category: prophecy

Posted in baal, baphomet, jesus, prophecy, satan

Detroit’s Baphomet statue and the coming Abomination of Desolation

Posted on by elizabethprata
Moses

The Bible speaks of idolatrous statues quite often. There is one particular statue to come which will outstrip the evilness of all the rest. For now, in Detroit, the 200-plus member Church of Satan unveiled a statue of a false and evil god known as Baphomet and I’ll speak of that down below. But first, a look at idolatrous statues in the Bible.

The first commandment states,

You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)

The Second Commandment states,

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)

Yet satan lusts after worship. He desires all should bow down and worship him. It has been his life-long quest. (Luke 4:5-8, Isaiah 14:13-14)

You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ (Isaiah 14:13-14)

Satan has been working hard ever since in order to get people to worship him. Sometimes this is expressed in the statues he causes people to build and bow down to.

In Genesis 11:4 we read of a rebellious people building a tower to themselves in order to steal God’s glory, in effect, to get God to bow down to them. The Flood had barely receded.

In Exodus we read that while Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving these commandments, the Israelites built a golden calf and bowed down to it,

And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:4)

We read of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, whereupon this king commanded all to bow down to this image in worship. This is the one where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not bow down to it and were thrown into the fiery furnace.

Baal, Asherah, Answers in Genesis

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. (Daniel 3:1)

The people worshiped at the Asherah pole, sacrificed at statues of Molech, burned incense at altars of Baal, (2 Chronicles 34:4) and even the brazen serpent Moses had made became an idol King Hezekiah had to remove (2 Kings 18:3-4).

Today we have Baphomet in Detroit. It is shocking to us because America has been spared the worst of the visible expressions of false idolatry since our founding. Our nation from sea to shining sea has not been littered with Golden Calf statues statues or idols or Asherah poles or Dagon images. But no more. It has been spared photographs of people lining up to worship satan. But no more.

This past weekend, several hundred members of that ‘church’ lined up to see and worship an evil statue which was unveiled in Detroit. Apparently the “Church of Satan” has a thriving membership. Of course, satan is the god of this world and all whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life actually serve satan, knowingly or unknowingly. This statue is about those who serve satan knowingly. These people choose to worship actively and knowingly, naming their god and pledging allegiance to him.

Satanic Statue Unveiled

Dozens of protesters gathered in Detroit to protest the unveiling ceremony of a controversial bronze Baphomet statue by the Satanic Temple. When the one-ton goat-headed statue was finally exposed, supporters welcomed it, and cheered “Hail Satan!”

Source

Do you see the line of eager worshipers? Now imagine some years into the future, perhaps not too long from now, when thousands and millions of eager satan worshipers line up to see the unveiling of satan’s ultimate “victory”- the statue of the beast.

And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. 15And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. (Revelation 13:14-15)

Gill’s Exposition explains,

that the image of the beast should both speak: so that it was not like Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image that he set up, which required another to speak for it and demand adoration to it; and should seem to be preferable to the dumb idols of the Gentiles, which have mouths, but speak not; and may be understood either of the images of the virgin Mary, and other saints, which it is pretended, and the people are made to believe, that they do at times actually speak, and really weep and laugh, as it may serve their different purposes;

Fresco of the Deeds of the Antichrist (c. 1501) in Orvieto Cathedral.

This is one statue that is prophesied which will temporarily fulfill satan’s eagerness and evil lust for self-worship. The Statue the antichrist will set up in the Temple of God, causing all to become desolate. While God has been long in mercy and has allowed these interloper statues and false gods to exist and persist, there will come a day when there will be a final straw. The life of sin upon the earth will be crushed in the full fury of the winepress of wrath. Jesus describes the events leading up to that moment in Matthew 24.

Sitting atop the Mount of Olives, Matthew 24 records Jesus’ reply to three questions the disciples posed. He had just revealed to them that the Temple was to be thrown done. His response was one of the lengthiest discourses He gave in the New Testament, and is known as The Olivet Discourse. The questions were about the end of time,

“Tell us, when will these things be,
and what will be the sign of your coming,
and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 243b)

Jesus describes the signs of the end of the age, and for the first part of Matthew 24 we read of the troubling and devastating things that are to come. By the way, nothing in Matthew 24 regards the church or is about the rapture. It is a discourse totally centered on Jesus’s plan for the Jews and Israel in the Tribulation. The church is raptured prior to the things Jesus discusses.

Then Jesus reveals the event which will trigger the Great Tribulation, the latter half of the prophesied 7 years of wrath on earth. He said,

So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (Matthew 24:15-16)

He is referring to Daniel’s prophecy in this verse:

And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. (Daniel 9:27)

Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate. (Daniel 11:31)

And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. (Daniel 12:11)

Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

Here is the conclusion to a Compelling Truth article explaining through scripture what the Abomination of Desolation is and who perpetrates it. Please read the entire article.

So by letting Scripture interpret Scripture, we find that a reasonable answer to the question of “What is the abomination of desolation?” is that it will be the Antichrist, three and a half years into his reign, taking a place in God’s rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and saying to the world that he is God and must be worshipped as God. When that occurs, the real Creator will respond to the challenge and will ultimately and eternally destroy the Antichrist (Revelation 19:20).

This is what all the world’s history is hurtling to, and more rapidly each day. The landscape in America has been satisfyingly filled with crosses atop hills, statues of Ten Commandments in parks, and sweet Nativity scenes at Christmas. We even see the name of Jesus on a billboard sign. Soon, these public displays of affection for our Savior will be no more. Our eyes and hearts will be increasingly assaulted by the evilness that has been seen in other nations at all various times since the ziggurat on the plains of Shinar in the form of idolotrous statuary. Baphomet has landed.

I’m just telling you that we’d better get ready, because we may be living this very soon. And by the way, it’s not going to take long for this to unfold. Once the Supreme Court made the decision, they were ready. They were standing in the wings with everything ready, and it’s going to come like a blitzkrieg. (John MacArthur)

If the end of the end includes satan’s finally taking his place in the temple next to his statue and claiming to be god, then we can expect much, MUCH more of this Detroit Baphomet foolishness, and quickly too. Even Time Magazine when reporting on the statue, did so in a kind of hushed wonder at their boldness. (See link below)

I know it is an assault on the heart to cast our eyes on things like this statue, not only because we are not used to it in America, but because the statue includes children. This hurts. And while I know we are not surprised that satan is alive and active in the world, it does take time for the heart to catch up to the head. We must allow that even in our “unsurprise” our hearts are heavy and we mourn.

However do not let the mourning turn to permanent sorrow. We have hope! We have a glorious future awaiting. We have the scriptures and the Spirit and ministering angels and prayer and an Intercessor and the providential care of a perfect and holy God.

Mourn for the many who worship satan, actively by name or unwittingly in their depravity. We plead for souls. We beg our Lord to forgive them, for they know not what they do, and at the same time we beg for His righteousness to punish those who blaspheme His spotless name by worshiping his eternal enemy. This is a difficult time in which we live, but take heart. The Lord placed us here exactly for such a time as this. We trust Him to give us the strength needed to glorify Him in an ever darkening world. And then, the Light will come, forever and evermore.

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. (Revelation 21:23)

ALL HAIL THE LAMB!

————————-

Further Reading

Roadside Attractions Mag: The Giant Cross at Groom Texas

Time Mag: Hundreds Gather for Unveiling of Satanic Statue in Detroit

Posted in Burnout, Church Mothers, Discerning Women, discernment, encouragement, Michelle Lesley, prophecy, tower of babel, trevin wax

Gibberish, Discerning Women, Burnout, Church Mothers, Eschatological Discipleship

Posted on by elizabethprata

Around the interwebs, edifying and thought-provoking essays for your enjoyment.

What I been sayin,’ words mean things. Words matter. They really do.

I’d written back along,

Well, the second problem that ties back into the first (ecclesiastical feminism) is that words mean things. They mean things. Any liberal in any realm in the battle for hearts and minds will first seek to change meanings of commonly understood words in order to co-opt the meaning and then to redefine them to their advantage. Example: sodomite—->homosexual—->gay. In the church world, we no longer sin. We make mistakes. We’re no longer Christian. We’re Christ followers.

GIBBERISH 
Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)

So. Words matter. Until they don’t. The ever-brilliant Carl Trueman writes about The Coming of Age of Today’s Gibberish whereupon an “Editor’s Note” attempted to say what certain words mean without being too specific about what they really mean. Like the word “woman” and menstruate”.

Editor’s note: This blog post refers to individuals who menstruate as women because the author wanted to highlight gender inequality in health care. We acknowledge that not all individuals who menstruate identify as women and that not all individuals who identify as women menstruate, but feel this generalization is appropriate considering the gendered nature of most health care policies. 

One might translate what the editor is really saying as ‘the concept of being a woman is now utterly meaningless but we have decided to preserve the fiction at those points where it is politically convenient for us to do so.’ Notice the editor’s use of the vague term feel and the slippery adjective appropriate. As ever, in our aesthetic age, it is impossible to argue against a feeling.

DISCERNING WOMEN

Here, Michele Lesley lists Nine Reasons Discerning Women Are Leaving Your Church and every single one is 100% a ‘hear, hear’.

The absence of discerning women in churches gives rise to many other problems. Godly mothers raise godly children, and absent discerning moms, the next generation of church life suffers. Elder discerning women have much to bring to the table (reason #7) in being the Titus 2:4 women teaching the younger. As discerning women leave churches the less discerning take over and soon you have the blind leading the blind. Third, the contributions to the faith of discerning women are without measure. Within our biblically prescribed roles, we see New Testament women advancing the Gospel and expanding the kingdom in myriad ways.

Priscilla and Aquila were discerning enough to see the potential in Apollos and taught him separately. Lydia’s home became a hotspot for prayer, teaching, and hospitality-fellowship. Dorcas gently led many women in a worthwhile sewing circle, teaching biblical principles by example.

On the other hand, you have a young and skittish and Rhoda who was so startled to see rescued Peter standing at the gate she shut it and left him there, believing the false but then-widely-popular notion that humans have a doppelganger angel, and that was who came to visit.

Soon, if not already, you will have churches that are absent your wise Priscillas, and Dorcas’ and Lydias and instead filled with foolish Rhodas.

Even though it is a bad thing that discerning women are leaving the churches, it is encouraging in a sense if you are one of the discerning women. At least you know you’re not alone in your concerns. Read Ms Lesley’s piece, it’s good.

While Scripture is pretty clear that we can expect women (and men) who are false converts to eventually fall away from the gathering of believers, why are godly, genuinely regenerated women who love Christ, His word, and His church, leaving their local churches?

BURNOUT

Other men and women are leaving due to burnout. Yikes, burnout is an epidemic, just at the time when we need good men and women ministering to the flock. Please, please avoid burnout. Please, please pray for your pastors and leaders.

Question: “What does the Bible say about burnout?”
Anyone who has experienced burnout knows it is not something he ever wants to experience again. Burnout is commonly described as an exhausted state in which a person loses interest in a particular activity and even in life in general. Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, social, and spiritual exhaustion. It can lead to diminished health, social withdrawal, depression, and a spiritual malaise. Many times, burnout is the result of an extended period of exertion at a particular task (generally with no obvious payoff or end in sight) or the carrying of too many burdens (such as borne by those in the helping professions or those in positions of authority, among others).

CHURCH MOTHERS
Photo by Alysia Burton Steele

An interesting peek at a part of Christian culture of which I have no experience and very little knowledge

Chronicling Mississippi’s ‘Church Mothers,’ and Getting to Know a Grandmother

Ms. Bearden and Ms. Floyd were part of a larger assemblage of 50 African-American women whom Ms. Steele had chosen to chronicle in text and image for a book-in-progress she has titled “Jewels in the Delta.” Whether by formal investiture or informal acclamation, nearly all the women in the book held the title of “church mother,” a term of respect and homage in black Christianity.

ESCHATOLOGICAL DISCIPLESHIP
Jesus giving the Farewell Discourse (John 14-17)
to his disciples, after the Last Supper,
from the Maesta by Duccio, 1308-1311

Trevin Wax is an Editor at LifeWay and is working on his doctoral dissertation. He wrote recently that his dissertation is on the topic of Eschatological Discipleship.” This is a topic near and dear to my heart, because it is exactly the focus of this blog. How are we to live, biblically, knowing of Jesus return? I’d observed that too many people, as Trevin wrote below, focusing on Jesus’ past work and avoiding the future promise of His return. Yet the Bible is replete with admonitions for living, encouraging, and a praying for the future deliverance via the promises of prophecy. This is what Trevin is writing about. Here is the excerpt from his longer essay which is mainly on other topics. He wrote that he is taking a break from blog writing to focus on his dissertation writing, whichis the topic of:

Eschatological Discipleship

The topic of my dissertation is “eschatological discipleship.” Following Jesus means understanding our times in light of the biblical vision of history and having the wisdom to make the right choices when the path ahead seems unclear. 

Many gospel-centered folks are right to point out that the New Testament’s moral imperatives are often grounded in Christ’s finished work for us in the past. What we sometimes overlook, however, is how many of those moral imperatives also look forward to Christ’s return in the future. We are called to be “children of the day” in a world that knows only darkness. 

The question that propels me forward is this: 

What kind of discipleship is necessary to fortify the faith of believers so that we understand what time it is, we rightly interpret our cultural moment, and see through the false and damaging views of history and the future that are in our world? 

That is the question I posed in my workshop at TGC this year: Discipleship in the Age of Richard Dawkins, Lady Gaga, and Amazon.com: Grounding Believers in the Scriptural Storyline that Counters Rival Eschatologies. (The audio from the talk is available here.)
To be alert to our times is a gospel requirement, says Oliver O’Donovan:

To see the marks of our time as the products of our past; to notice the danger civilisation poses to itself, not only the danger of barbarian reaction; to attend especially not to those features which strike our contemporaries as controversial, but to those which would have astonished an onlooker from the past but which seem to us too obvious to question. There is another reason, strictly theological. To be alert to the signs of the times is a Gospel requirement, laid upon us as upon Jesus’ first hearers.

I agree.

Enjoy the day today friends, look forward to the future and keep looking up!

Posted in encouragement, john macarthur, judgment, prophecy, rapture, relief, tribulation

Beleaguered brethren, relief is on the way

Posted on by elizabethprata

What a blessed relief the rapture is to look forward to!!!

In his tremendous sermon delivered last Sunday, July 19, Pastor John MacArthur demonstrated once again the qualities of a superlative shepherd.

After Memorial Day he planned to go on vacation as usual. He delivered a sermon to help his flock prepare for events that may occur while he was gone. He said in his good-bye for now sermon,  “Hope for a Doomed Nation” that

So as we look at our nation – and I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few weeks when I’m not here. I’m just kind of preempting that a little bit by helping you to be able to think through whatever happens. I have to say at this point that there are many churches who aren’t helping.

One event was obviously what turned out to be the devastating Supreme Court decision to legalize homosexual marriage in all 50 states as the law of the land. We knew that the Supreme Court decision was coming out in early June, and we knew the decision would not likely swing to the moral side of the compass. So the Pastor was preparing his flock to receive bad news and retain their spiritual equilibrium (and ours too, if we listen to GTY). However, in addition to the SCOTUS decision, we also endured the Charleston church shooting, Chattanooga military base terrorist shooting, Louisiana movie theater shooting, and the Planned Parenthood videos. A lot happened while their senior pastor was away.

So much so, that the rapidity of our moral collapse as a nation is dizzying. The collapse is coming from many different directions. That’s partly why it’s dizzying, our heads are swinging from this side to that to detect all the incoming. So though Pastor MacArthur’s vacation was going to be the usual length, most of the summer, MacArthur had an opportunity to return and preach for one Sunday, July 19 before resuming this week. In the face of moral collapse, heightened danger physically and spiritually for every Christian in this country, and grief over the heinousness of the Planned Parenthood videos, how can a pastor best help his flock at such a time as this?

He opened that sermon, We Will Not Bow by saying,

A lot is happening at a very rapid rate. And with all the discussion that’s been going on, I’ve been kind of eager to get to you, and maybe help to give you a perspective.

His phrase, ‘get to you’, was filled with urgency and the word ‘to’ was emphasized. You’ll hear it if you listen. It reminded me of a mama on a playground suddenly hearing her child cry because he fell down, and her instinct is to rush over and scoop him up and protect. That was the attitude in his statement, a shepherd rushing over to protect the sheep, to calm them and give them food. This in itself is encouraging.

The sermon was encouraging as much as it was informative. Toward the conclusion of it, MacArthur focused on the relief that is in store.

No matter what is occurring in the world or the United States ultimately there will be an end. The end for believers will be blessed relief from the corruptions of our flesh, the battles against the temptations of the world, and the deliverance from the presence of satan and sin. It will all end and for us, the end will be a holy blessed relief. It all can be summed up in one word: Jesus. He gives the relief and His work on the cross actuated it.

Part of that relief will be the righteous satisfaction in seeing evildoers punished. The end for those who do not love Jesus is eternal conscious torment after having been judged at the Great White Throne Judgment. I know this isn’t a palatable statement for many to read, but once we are glorified at the rapture and the end of all things plays out, we will be part of Jesus in every way. He longs for making all things right and we will too. Sinners’ sins are so terrible against our Jesus that we will want to see Him enthroned, claiming His position as dispenser of justice.

MacArthur said

But that same event brings us relief, relief. Verse 6, “It is only just for God to repay with affliction.” And implied, it is only just for God to give relief. He will give relief to His own. Affliction will end. Persecution will end. Suffering will end. That’s His promise. And it will end for those that belong to Him—those who have been afflicted by a God-rejecting, Christ-rejecting world.

And what does that relief look like? Verse 10, we’ll be glorified with Him on that day, “to be marveled at among all who have believed.” I love to think of that. We’re going to look at each other and say, “Whoa, did you turn out amazing! I never could have imagined.” I’ve told you before, I know there are many of you, that when we get to heaven, I won’t recognize. Perfection with obliterate any memory of what you used to be.

We’re just passing through, aren’t we? We’re just passing through. (John MacArthur “We Will Not Bow“)

I began this essay saying what a good shepherd John MacArthur is. I have several friends who had opportunity to hear the sermon live last Sunday. They both tweeted how blessed they were to hear it and be comforted along with many other solid believers. I write this essay because not everyone has such a blessing.

As the moral slide gains steam and hurtles down that downgrade, many discerning believers are left adrift inside their local congregations with unworthy shepherds. Some pastors are just plain unskilled at being able to comfort through scriptures. These pastors preach topically, usually three points of self-help sermons such as “Three Ways to Get Your Kids to Listen to You” or “Six Ways to Change Your Life”. Self-help is no help at all when trials come.

Other pastors are ignorant of eschatology or are unwilling to give it credence. Thus they avoid scriptures that refer to the end of all things such as the Matthew 24 or 1 Thessalonians verses, which actually are designed to comfort. (1 Thessalonians 4:18).

Other pastors are not saved and are actually agents of satan. We don’t like to believe this, but it is true far more often than most people realize. S. Lewis Johnson preached,

And so it was inevitable, Paul says, that factions would exist in the church. For there must also be factions among you that those are approved may be recognized among you. In fact, the factions and the process of being approved by the way in which we respond to the problems of the local church is really an anticipation of a separation that is to occur at the judgment seat — well, at the Great White Throne judgment.

There are people who are in ostensible fellowship with local churches that are not going to be in heaven. We know that. The Bible details that, too. Satan is very active in the Christian church seeking to overthrow the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so, consequently, he infiltrates the Christian churches. And if it’s a Christian church that is a fruitful church there will be some there that are not emissaries of our Lord but are really emissaries of Satan. Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

And he says “not only are they sitting in the pew, they’re standing by the pulpit.” As a matter of fact, the ones standing behind the pulpit are more dangerous and more likely to upset the Church of God. And so Satan is very anxious to have one standing behind a pulpit, or standing behind this pulpit, too, for that matter. 

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)

So for those who do not have the blessing of a faithful pastor, and/or are attending a church filled with false doctrine but don’t know where else to go, or are dealing with factions and disgruntled members, or who simply feel alone even in the middle of a local congregation, take heart.

We are sojourners on this hostile planet. But that will end. Relief is on the way. Praise Jesus.

Posted in Book of Revelation, eschatology, prophecy, revelation

Is Revelation the most difficult book in the Bible to understand?

Posted on by elizabethprata
John the Apostle on Patmos by Jacopo Vignali

No.

The Book of Revelation is not the most difficult book in the Bible to understand.

Is it possible to be dogmatic about this? So certain?

Yes.

First, some background. The Book of Revelation is the last book in the Bible. Chronologically it’s the last book as well because it is devoted almost exclusively of what is to come at the end of time. It is also the last book to be written, being finished by about 96AD by the last of the eyewitness Apostles to have walked with Jesus: John son of Zebedee, the Beloved Apostle. John had been exiled to the rocky, barren isle of Patmos off Greece,

“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, (Revelation 1:9).

He had come onto the bad side of Emperor Domitian for the word of God, and the Emperor had exiled John, a common punishment.

Patmos is part of the Greek chain, sitting in the Aegean Sea but closer to Turkey than Greece. It is small, just 7.5 miles tall by 6 miles wide. Today, Forbes magazine voted Patmos as “Europe’s Most Idyllic Places To Live.” Back in 96AD it was barren, rocky, treeless, and hot.

John was an old man by 96AD. Perhaps he had thought his usefulness to the Lord was concluded. Perhaps he wondered why he had been kept alive long after his fellow disciples had been privileged to die a martyr’s death. And then one Lord’s day when John was in prayer and reverie, Jesus spoke to him.

Just as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:2 that he was caught up to the third heaven but whether in the body or out of the body he knows not. John described the circumstances of his surroundings and activities upon receiving the visions, said he was in the Spirit, but then simply begins to record when he was given to see without saying if he was actually in heaven or how he it was possible to hear Jesus and see these things.

What amazing, wonderful and terrible things John was given to see. Daniel was given a vision of the end and afterward he was sick many days. (Daniel 8:27). John concludes chapter 1 with a description of Jesus, the appearance of whom caused John to fall at his feet as though dead. So did Daniel (Dan 8:18).

Chapter two and three encompass personal messages Jesus wanted John to write and send to the 7 churches of Asia (Province of Rome, not the entire continent). These were Pergamum, Thyatira, Philadelphia, Smyrna, Sardis, Laodicea, Ephesus.

Wikipedia summarizes the flow of these early chapters in Revelation,

The letters follow a common pattern. For example: the Lord first addresses each church and identifies himself, then defines things that he knows about the church in question. After this a challenge or reproach is given, followed by a promise. In all seven cases the admonition is included, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”, although sometimes this comes before the promise and sometimes after.

What is interesting, and what would require study, is how Jesus identified Himself to each church. In one He says He is the Amen, to another, the Holy One, to another, the One who walks among the 7 lampstands, to another Him who has the sharp two-edged sword. It would take study, prayer, and thought to determine why Jesus identified Himself in these unique ways to certain churches and why this name matched the message He gave them. But that is regular Bible study, just like in any other book of the Bible. Revelation chapter 4 has John receiving a vision of heaven! This includes seeing those majestic, strange creatures with six wings and four faces and eyes all around. That’s deep! Yet Isaiah and Ezekiel also saw the throne room, these creatures, the rainbow, and flashes of fire and peals of thunder as John did We can compare those prophets’ previous texts and John’s text so scripture can interpret scripture. Just like we do for any book. Though the creatures are strange and the throne of God awesome in the word’s truest sense, these things are hard to comprehend, but not especially difficult to interpret. Especially when there are two other texts to help us.

Patmos. Wikimedia Commons

So why do people say Revelation is hard? Marginalize it? Ignore it? Dismiss it?

In his sermon “How to Study Your Bible” John MacArthur writes,

Perhaps if we asked people who have some familiarity with the Bible, “What would be the most difficult book in the Bible? What would be the hardest book of the Bible to understand?” they would probably say Revelation. Probably most people would say that the book of Revelation is hard to understand. I know many preachers, who throughout the life of their ministry, would never preach on the book of Revelation because they don’t think they can understand it. And that’s because they have abandoned the proper hermeneutics to interpret it. Because if they interpret it with the right hermeneutics they have to interpret it literally, and if they interpret it literally it goes against their historic theology. And they really don’t want to do that so they just don’t know what to do with the book of Revelation and they leave it out.

Actually, in my opinion, the book of Zechariah is theologically dense, and pound for pound contains more prophecy and symbolism than Revelation does. Revelation is pretty clear. MacArthur again:

Now I believe that the book of Revelation can be understood. It can be understood if you just read it; it’s very clear what it says. It’s only when people get mystical about it that it becomes confusing. Obviously there are some elements of the prophecies there that we will never understand until they actually come to pass, but that’s true of all prophecy. But the message of the book, exalting Jesus Christ, speaking about the glorification of the saints and the judgment of the ungodly is very clear in the book of Revelation.

I’d opened with a dogmatic statement that the book of Revelation can be understood, at least as much as any other book of the bible and as much as any prophecy can be before it is fulfilled. I say this for two reasons.

Reason #1: The book is called The revelation. Revealed. It is not the book of Confusion. It isn’t the book of Mystery. It isn’t called The Really Hard Book We Should Stay Away From. The first line in the book, Revelation 1:1, says

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.

Jesus chose to reveal things, for the purpose of showing us. Rather than being cloaked in mystery, the statement about itself is one of understanding.

Reason #2: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)

It is the only book of the Bible in which His servants are promised a blessing just for reading it. THAT is how important this book is to Jesus, and thus to all of us. He did not choose to reveal, to show, and to bless, and then do a takes-back by cloaking it in mystery, hide, and curse.

Now, in one sense, of course the entire bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry says in his commentary,

This book is the Revelation of Jesus Christ; the whole Bible is so; for all revelation comes through Christ, and all relates to him. Its principal subject is to discover the purposes of God concerning the affairs of the church, and of the nations as connected therewith, to the end of the world. … This blessing seems to be pronounced with a design to encourage us to study this book, and not be weary of looking into it upon account of the obscurity of many things in it; it will repay the labour of the careful and attentive reader.

Reason #3: If Revelation is the only book in which the reader will receive a blessing for reading, what is the one book satan is going to concentrate on getting us NOT to read? Of course. He has done a good job in getting Seminary Professors not to teach it, and a generation of pastors coming up have not learned it well. Satan has spent a good deal of time getting pastors, teachers, and lay people to doubt their ability to understand it. That old serpent has done a good job of clouding our judgment when it comes to the Book of Revelation. The devil has been successful in getting to see this book almost as a curse, not a blessing. So reason #3 in which we can say with certainty is that we are not unaware of the devil’s schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11).

With that encouragement, I do encourage you to read Revelation, study it, enjoy it. It is magnificent book, relating to us the things of our end, the final state of this present age. Eden will be restored! The Holy City will have none to defile it! Wow! Blessing is pronounced, not just the one in chapter 1 but another in chapter 22:7

“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

——————————-

Further Reading

Overview: The Book of Revelation, Got Questions?

Book: Because the Time is Near, by John MacArthur

Sermon: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, S. Lewis Johnson

Posted in abortion, molech, Obama, planned parenthood, prophecy, sin

Planned Parenthood: The Handwriting is on the Wall

Posted on by elizabethprata
Rembrandt: Belshazzar’s Feast

This week, an undercover video surfaced. It recorded in audio and video a conversation held during dinner in a restaurant between two people from the Center for Medical Progress and a Planned Parenthood Doctor/Administrator. CNN summarizes,

Planned Parenthood exec, fetal body parts subject of controversial video

An anti-abortion group has released an online video that it says documents how Planned Parenthood is selling fetal organs for a profit, a felony, while violating medical ethics by altering normal abortion procedures so as to preserve the organs.

The Doctor eats heartily and drinks swellingly as she casually describes how she shreds the baby in the womb so as to preserve the lucrative organs for later financial gain.

CNN screen shot

CNN screen shot

CNN screen shot

I don’t know which is worse, the fact of their shocking murderous activities, their duplicity in allegedly illegally selling human organs and tissue, the chilling language that coldly describing their calculating killing, or the party atmosphere in which this is all set.

You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 18:21)

The Leviticus verse makes it clear that sacrificing your child to a false god is profaning the LORD.

Her swilling wine and partying at the table while describing an abomination against the Lord reminded me of another party atmosphere where the participants profaned the LORD and thought nothing of it…until His Hand appeared.

Molech was an ancient false God of the Ammonites, and the Israelites imported him into the land. Parents would place the baby in the statue of Molech’s belly and a fire would be kindled. The child would be burned alive as a sacrifice.

In Daniel 5 we read of the riotous party that King Belshazzar had, using God’s holy temple implements for an orgy. Unaware or uncaring of his blasphemy, he carried on. King Belshazzar was son of Nebchadnezzar, King of Babylon.

King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. 2Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. (Daniel 5:1-4)

It was the last straw for a profane King. The Jewish Encyclopedia describes it:

It is stated in Dan. v. that Belshazzar gave a banquet to the lords and ladies of his court, at which the sacred vessels of the Jerusalem Temple, which had been brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar at the time of the Judean captivity in 586 B.C., were profaned by the ribald company. In consequence of this, during the turmoil of the festivities, a hand was seen writing on the wall of the chamber a mysterious sentence which defied all attempts at interpretation until the Hebrew sage Daniel was called in. He read and translated the unknown words, which proved to be a divine menace against the dissolute Belshazzar, whose kingdom was to be divided between the Medes and Persians. In the last verse we are told that Belshazzar was slain in that same night, and that his power passed to Darius the Mede.

Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. 6Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. (Daniel 5:5-6)

Belshazzar knew that something drastic was happening, as the Jewish Encyclopedia says, a message of divine menace. He could not read the message so he called for Daniel. Daniel said-

And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this [about the humiliation of proud King Nebchadnezzar], 23but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.

24“Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. 25And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Daniel 5:22-28)

God hates to be profaned. He hates sin. He is patient, but His patience comes to an end at His appointed time. That night, Babylon fell to the Medes and Belshazzar was killed.

Dr Albert Mohler’s piece on the Planned Parenthood video was excellent. I linked to it above and below. He brought out a good point. He said

We must pray that this video will mark an important turning point in our nation’s conscience. Images and words can become seared in our minds. The horrifying knowledge of harvested baby hearts must lead to our own broken hearts. A nation that will allow this, will allow anything.

God knows this, he is ever before us and ahead of us. The child killers are sinners but those who ‘close their eyes’ to it are also sinning against the LORD. He said in Leviticus,

If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molek and if they fail to put him to death, I myself will set my face against him and his family and will cut them off from their people together with all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molek. (Leviticus 20:4-5 NIV)

One doctor in one organization at one dinner is not the same as a King who sets a profaning example before an entire nation. Or is it? The doctor was speaking FOR Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood receives a sizable Federal subsidy. Here are a few facts

  • Planned Parenthood’s net revenue increased 5% to total of $1.21 billion in its organizational fiscal year ending on June 30, 2013,
  • 45% of that revenue–$540.6 million–was provided by taxpayer-funded government health services grants,
  • In the year that ended on Sept. 30, 2012 it did 327,166 abortions.

So the organization for which the doctor was speaking is funded by the states and the US government. Obama has actively fought de-funding Planned Parenthood at the national and the state level. It is a trickle-up effect, landing squarely at King Belshazzar Obama’s desk.

I can’t proclaim what the LORD will do in this instance, I can only explain what the LORD has said. His character is such that if He hated child murder in the past He hates it now. If He punished those who profane His name in the past, He will punish them now. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever; (Hebrews 13:8) He changeth not. (James 1:17, Malachi 3:6a).

Whether the secret video is something that as Al Mohler said will either prompt our national conscience to action or sear it further, only time will tell. But … the Handwriting is on the Wall.

———————-

Further reading

Abortion and the Campaign for Immorality

“A Lot of People Want Intact Hearts These Days” — Planned Parenthood, Abortion, and the Conscience of a Nation

Posted in offense, prophecy, truth

Evildoers are without hope. Let the truth offend, proclaim it boldly!

Posted on by elizabethprata

Yesterday was a day of horror. I read about the Chicago Theological Seminary’s endeavor at the Chicago Pride parade and I was sickened and knocked out of my senses by what a “Seminary” is doing in the name of Jesus.

The news headlines even constrained in a 140 character limit are too much to bear these days. Never mind absorbing full headlines and the actual news. I thought that Chicago Theological incident would likely be the worst thing I would read that day.

I was wrong.

The horror continued with the revealing of a secret video of a Planned Parenthood executive having a casual discussion about a monstrosity she regularly performs. And I’m not talking about abortion, monstrosity as well that is.

I begged the Lord to have mercy on us.

Then my thoughts turned to Him, our precious Savior who came to save us from our sins. He is so pure, holy, and sinless, and yet He is so long-suffering and patient. Because if I am having this reaction to some vile and revolting news, then what of Jesus? I praised Him in tearful prayer for His restraint, His patience, and His mercy. We’re offended, but every sin that happens under the sun is an offense to Him and against Him.

He said in Luke 12:49 NASB, I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!

His fervency to punish the wicked and right the wrongs done to His Father boils within our Savior. Knowing this makes seeing His mercy and restraint all the more wonderful.

There will come a day when fire will consume evildoers. It is up to us to tell the Good News until that Day. For many millions and billions are living daily in complete offense to God. They have no hope. Meanwhile, His anger builds.

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:5)

Political correctness cannot allow us to water down the message any more. There is a burning necessity of being bold and proclaiming the word in truth. Sinners need Jesus so badly, and we have only had a minor glimpse of the horrors of sins previously unrevealed and you can be sure there are worse to come. And this is with the Restrainer on earth. (2 Thessalonians 2:6)

In the end,
Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. (Luke 12:2).

I’m glad that by then we will be glorified and can take the amount of sin that is going to be revealed on the Day of Judgment in Wrath. But until then, my concern is for sinner of course, but my first thought (and yours should be) is of Jesus. We sin against Him and Him alone. (Psalm 51:4). His patience in enduring against these offenses Him is monumental.

If nothing else, the news should fire up Christians to evangelize in boldness. This is why:

Posted in bible, famine of the word, persecution, prophecy

Why the SCOTUS decision means we must start memorizing our Bibles in earnest, NOW

Posted on by elizabethprata

 I never like to exhort without offering a solution. Thanks to commenters and Facebook friends, here are two FREE systems to help memorize His word.

UPDATE: Memorizing Scripture: two systems to help you- ScriptureTyper and Scripture Memory System 

————————————-
On June 26, 2015, Christians got a wake-up call. That was the day that the Supreme Court of the United States decided, extant from law or precedent, that homosexual ‘marriage’ should be the law of the land in all 50 states.

The news hit like a tsunami. The reactions ranged from ones of outrage and perplexity among Christians, to reactions of ebullience from homosexuals and those who applaud them.

The ramification of this decision from the highest court in the land will take time to fully reveal itself. However, initial impacts are not good. Almost immediately a polyamorous triad applied for a marriage certificate in Montana. More ominously, just as immediately, a newspaper editor declared that he will not publish letters to the editor expressing an opinion in opposition to gay marriage. Most portentously,

Christian Colleges’ Right to Deny Married Housing for Gay Couples Is ‘on the Edge of the Indefensible,’ Rep. Barry Lynn Asserts

Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced Monday the launch of an “aggressive” initiative to combat any state or federal legislation, or court ruling seeking to protect religious objectors of same-sex marriage from government consequence for living according to their religious convictions. … In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on June 26 that it is unconstitutional for states to refuse issuing same-sex couples marriage licenses, the organization expects Christian conservatives to respond by introducing a plethora of bills, executive orders, regulatory and policy changes that are “designed to resist the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. (Deuteronomy 11:18).

What it’s saying is that the gay mafia will put to the legal test the notion that Christian colleges cannot and should not deny same-sex couples’ co-habitation at such a college. And if you’re wondering why a homosexual would even bother to enroll in a Christian college, never mind bring his or her partner and spend good money fighting to live together, it’s because homosexuals are disciplined, organized, and are fervently effective witnesses for satan. They go to the hostile places to witness for their demonic truths.

In the week or so since the SCOTUS ruling allowing homosexual marriage, some have begun to think about whether it is time for civil disobedience. Churches are drawing up policies and legal language articulating their position on whether their pastor will perform a homosexual wedding. Church treasurers are going over the bookkeeping accounts to see where they would stand if stripped of their tax-exempt status. Street preachers are settling in their mind how far to take submission to civil law versus speaking to what we have heard and seen, as Acts 4:18-20 says.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly … (Colossians 3:16a)

The Banner of Truth posted a sobering article noting that the time for civil disobedience has come. They wrote that despite the clear commands of the Bible to submit to civil authorities, there are limits to that submission.

Yet the Bible itself sets limits to the submission believers owe the civil order. When some of the Old Testament kings of Israel and Judah practiced idolatry, the holy prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah stood against them. In the New Testament, when the unbelieving Jewish leadership told the apostles to quit preaching the gospel, they had to disobey this unrighteous order. Listen to Acts 4:18-20:

And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.  (Psalm 40:8)

But that isn’t the point of this article.

I’m worried about a greater danger. There is another ramification of the SCOTUS ruling where a confluence of events have conspired to put Christians at a disadvantage in the battle.

What?! you say? Through Christ we can do all things? Even David, seemingly defenseless against the giant Goliath, was victorious?! How can Christians now be at a disadvantage?

 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.  (Psalm 119:16)

Our battle is not against flesh and blood.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God… (Ephesians 6:10-17)

Christians are unarmed and unready for the battle because we have failed to put on the whole armor. We were warned, Paul did a good job there. But we did not heed. We have become biblically illiterate, and during a time in which bibles are seen as hate material and are increasingly being forbidden from many public places. Perhaps to be made illegal some time soon. So now we are missing an important component of the battle armor:

THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, THE WORD OF GOD.

US OWI WWII poster, series “Nature of the Enemy,”
response to Nazi religious book & religious material burnings

Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. (Proverbs 22:17-18)

Biblical illiteracy is at an all-time high. People don’t study the word, they don’t know what is in the word, they don’t care. They twist the word (“Don’t judge!”) and thanks to football, they are just as likely to know the verse that a person can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, as they are to believe that Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and God helps those who help themselves. Neither of the last two are even in the bible.

Less than a year ago Ed Stetzer wrote in Christianity Today that “It’s obvious: We are living in a post-biblically literate culture.”

 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21).

And now we’re caught with our pants down and our mouths hanging open. I’m not talking about thoughtful writing on theological blogs or online religious news outlet articles. In those scenarios an author has time to look up a verse. I am talking about the all-important hide-in-your-heart, wide swathes of the word, to have at the mental ready when out and about. The battle, when it comes to you, will be abrupt. You might be at the Big Box Store checkout line and the lady behind you might see your cross necklace and says, “Hey! You’re a Christian, why do you hate gays so much?” If you say grace at the employee cafeteria table, you might be heckled. Out of nowhere you might be involved in something and you’ll WISH you had that verse you know would compassionately speak to the situation, it’s on the tip of your tongue… but now you just can’t remember…

And soon, very soon, it might even become illegal to publicly carry a bible, or worse, even to own one. Holding Biblical religious material may become illegal in the United States at some point. Don’t think it can’t happen here. Irrational hostility against Christians and Christianity has already started, as noted by the news articles posted above. Bibles and/or verses and/or Bible study are all being banned at some private homes, schools, colleges, hotels (Gideon Bibles) in the United States- before SCOTUS June 26…

So if Bibles become forbidden or illegal what then? [crickets]

Source: Voice of the Martyrs.

What happened to Wednesday night Bible Drills? To using the Bible as the basis for Sunday School Curriculum? To personal Bible study? Gone. Gone. Gone.

Pastors do everything BUT preach the word, busy families shuttle kids to every kind of practice BUT family devotionals. Taking time to study the Bible and not books about the bible is simply unheard of. And we will pay for that.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:6)

Look at what happened to the church at Ephesus. Sometime between 60 and 62AD, Paul wrote to the saints at that church, saying

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, (Ephesians 1:16-17).

Paul was effusive and enthusiastic in praising them for their faith and love.

The next time we hear of the Ephesian church it is in Revelation, written about 95-96 AD.

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent (Revelation 2:4-5)

Jesus praises the Ephesians for their enduring patience, good works, and hatred of evil. But it counted for nothing, nothing, because they had lost their first love. Their good works counted for nothing, their patience counted for nothing, not even their pure doctrine counted. They had abandoned their first love, THAT was what mattered. What was that love? Jesus. What keeps that love aflame? Being with Him in His word. The Head of the Church said “I have this against you…” And it took less than 40 years for that church to lose their love.

What was Jesus’ command for a remedy?

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2:5)

1. Remember
2. Repent
3. Do the works you did at first

What were those works? The very ones Paul commended 40 years earlier and the very same works which characterized the early church; devotion to prayer, worship and rich bible study.

Without the sword of the Lord, we are defenseless against the wiles of the devil. And that is no good place to be. Today people won’t read the Bible. Soon it may be that they can’t read the Bible.

So here is my exhortation:

Personally read and study the bible. Not a devotional or a book or a curriculum or a study. THE BIBLE.

Make an effort to memorize verses. I fail miserably at this, so I am preaching to myself. We don’t know how long it will be until we are banned from carrying or displaying religious material in public, nor how long it will be until we are prohibited from even owning a bible, but it is hard is to fan the flames of faith without His word as the bellows. Have it ready in your heart and mind. Some of the verses urging us to do just that are listed on this essay from top to bottom.

Be diligent about studying with your children. Not just studying, memorizing. We do not know how long the Lord will tarry, but the next generation must have the Word at the ready in their hearts and minds in order to witness because access to biblical material may be too risky to obtain. Our mind may be all that we can carry.

Think about starting a memorization Bible Drill program at your church or homeschool group or after-school club. This one in Ohio is typical. There is one in just about every state, with levels that progressively lead to age-appropriate competitions. It can be modified for adults, like this one in Georgia.

Start NOW. Today.

Don’t go to battle without your sword. No good soldier would leave it dusty beside the campfire. No good policeman would go out without his gun, club, radio, handcuffs, etc. Don’t leave yourself defenseless in these times, times in which persecution is knocking at the door and is even beginning. Memorize, memorize, memorize.

Because if you think it won’t happen here I am sad to say it won’t be long before you are proven wrong. And I do not believe I am being a scare-mongering inflammatory sky is falling nutcase about this.

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.  (Amos 8:11)

Bible verse memorization has a two-fold purpose. It keeps the person memorizing them in a good and holy position so they may not sin against God, and it allows that person to witness on the spot or in places where bibles are forbidden or hard to come by, and to teach others to the truth of the Living God, coming again in glory to judge the quick and the dead.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:42)

——————————————-
Further Reading

Why is Bible memorization important?

Is Bible memorization important? Why?

Personal Bible study

Blog series: How to Study the Bible 

Posted in discernment, false teacher, jesus, prophecy, rick warren

SBC pastor Rick Warren to co-preach with archbishop at Catholic convention in advance of Pope visit

Posted on by elizabethprata

Rick Warren has been chosen to co-preach a keynote speech along with Cardinal Sean O’Malley at Pope Francis’ World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia this September 2015. [HT Pulpit & Pen]. Every three years the Pope holds this conference in a different city and every three years it has a different theme. This year’s theme is “Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive.”

Mary Beth Yount is director of content and programming for the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. She wrote extensively in ‘Catholic Philly’ of the selection process, the organization of the program, and the background of the Meeting:

The first step is the preparatory catechesis, the foundation on which a World Meeting of Families rests. The host diocese for each World Meeting writes a preparatory catechism that guides the proceedings. It contains a collection of Catholic teachings about the purpose of human life, marriage and the family, and addresses all stages of life.

The criteria for Warren and the others being chosen to speak at this eagerly anticipated, august global Catholic event were:

“We wanted speakers who were engaging and who could offer practical takeaways on how to help change lives,” Yount said.

Because being winsome and teaching practical life skills is what the Gospel is all about.

In addition to the event being an opportunity to preach, promote and affirm Catholic teachings, the speakers and organizers seek intercessory prayer from the august duo of intermediaries in heaven-and if you said Jesus and the Holy Spirit, you would be wrong – it’s Mary and Joseph.

We look forward to gathering with people from around the world in Philadelphia. As we prepare for this event, we particularly ask the intercessory prayers of Mary and Joseph, parents of the Holy Family and patrons of all families. (Source)

This is the environment in which Warren is co-preaching.

Ten years ago a question arose as to whether Warren was distancing himself from the Southern Baptist Convention. At that time, Warren firmly maintained he is Southern Baptist Convention aligned. He said,

“I’m Southern Baptist, our church is Southern Baptist, and we cooperate in SBC missions support at every level both in the United States and with our IMB [International Mission Board] missionaries around the world,” Warren told Baptist Press. 

In the ensuing decade Warren has obviously become apostate. I will refrain from enumerating his many questionable statements, partnerships, and activities besides the ones listed in this essay, but suffice to say they are evidence of an unfruitful Christian life. Sadly as of this writing the Southern Baptist Convention remains in friendly cooperation with Warren and his church at Saddleback. Yet the bible says:

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. (2 John 1:9-11)

Last year Warren was keynote for the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference,
the largest Protestant denomination in the world.

This year, keynote for the Catholic denomination, the largest apostate denomination on the world.

Rick Warren is busy.

His bio according to the Catholic Organizers of World Meeting of Families, includes of course being

pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, the author of The Purpose Driven Life and 10 other books. He is also founder of the Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan (Promote reconciliation, Equip leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the next generation). He established the Purpose Driven Network of Churches, and has trained over 400,000 priests and pastors in 197 countries. [emphasis mine]

The title of the Keynote the duo will deliver is absolutely hypocritically ironic and devastating. Far from being the Gospel of Life, their Gospel is the Gospel of Death. What we should be saying to those captured by satan’s snare in false religion is:

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, [whore Babylon religion] my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18:4-5).

Warren is not evangelizing the Catholics and calling for them to depart from their dark schema. Warren says the Pope is “our new pope”, is “doing everything right”. He said he enjoyed a recent headline in the Orange County newspaper, “If you love Pope Francis, you’ll love Jesus”, so much that he “saved it to show to a group of priests I was speaking to a while back…”

John MacArthur said,

Reclassifying the Pope, reclassifying Roman Catholics as believers isn’t that simple. It has massive implications. It has implications that literally overturn centuries of missionary effort. It has massive implications that overturn centuries, if not millennia, of martyrdom. In the long war on the truth, the most formidable, relentless and deceptive enemy has been Roman Catholicism. It is an apostate, corrupt, heretical, false Christianity. It is a front for the kingdom of Satan. The true church of the Lord Jesus Christ has always understood this. And even through the Dark Ages, from 400 to 1500, prior to the Reformation, genuine Christian believers set themselves apart from that system and were brutally punished and executed for their rejection of that system. (source)

The Catholic Church is a false church and teaches false things. From Christian Research and Apologetics Ministry, here is A list of false teachings in the Roman Catholic Church

source

It must be stated and re-stated that the Catholic Church is false and those people believing in its teachings are lost and under God’s wrath. It must be stated that “pastors” and others joining with them are perpetuating a gospel-less partnership in which the need to evangelize Catholics is forsaken for the plaudits of men and social works that are as filthy rags to Jesus.

It is important to recognize this because depending on your view of Catholics it changes everything. John MacArthur said that ten years ago, a document called “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” came out and many pastors and professors were signing it. That document stated that Catholics and Protestants celebrated a common faith and a common mission, it said we need to embrace each other and carry out this gospel mission together.

MacArthur said that a great many of the pastors got together and had a discussion, sometimes heated, as to what impact this document would have and whether pastors should sign it. MacArthur was on the ‘No’ side, along with RC Sproul and Michael Horton. He said they discussed things like:

Are they saved because they “believe in Jesus?” It was a very heated discussion at many points. What was at stake? I’ll tell you what was at stake. What was at stake is whether or not we evangelize Roman Catholics. That’s what’s at stake. One billion of them in the world, are they a mission field or are they our co-laborers for Christ? That changes everything. Everything.

When I read things like Rick Warren, a supposed evangelical pastor in good standing with my denomination, partnering with Catholic Archbishops under the umbrella of Catholic dogma and Catholic Catechism to promote and affirm it, I alternately become sick, angry, and heartbroken. Because 1 billion lives are at stake. One billion-plus souls which are in bondage to a works-legalistic scheme of a false religion that is as dung to Christ and will arrive in hell the second they die. And Warren preaches “love” – yet his hate is the most obvious and virulent of all the false pastors out there, because it is more subtle than Osteen and more insidious than Hinn.

The lesson is several-fold, my friends.

1. Prophecy: It is prophesied that in the last of the last days falsity would rise and apostasy would grow.

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. (1 Timothy 4:1-3)

2. Discernment: Be warned, stay away from the teachings of the false teachers, lest you be dragged in also.  Shun evildoers.

“…if he refuses even to listen to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:17).

3. Encouragement: If you detect and understand that the Catholic Church is false, that Rick Warren is apostate, and the SBC is a dangerous compromiser, then praise our Spirit for delivering this wisdom to you.

“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:14)

Posted in holy living, homosexuality, jesus, prophecy

‘Outrage and Panic’ Are Off-Limits, Say Evangelical Leaders on Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on by elizabethprata

Last words on the national perversity of the SCOTUS decision, I promise. I have other things in the hopper for the next few days I want to write about. One can only opine so much, lol.

Yesterday I avoided all photos and news and social media regarding the terrible Supreme Court decision to allow legalized sodomite marriage in the US. However this morning I was listening to Reformation Network (Refnet.fm, a must listen-to radio station online! By Ligonier). I heard a great sermon and was eager for the next sermon, but in between was Al Mohler’s The Briefing. I rolled my eyes but I stayed with the channel. I’m so glad I did.

Dr Albert Mohler, Jr. is an “American theologian and the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky” according to Wikipedia. He also has a radio broadcast called “The Briefing,” a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. He has an exceptional knack for distilling a wide range of news and drilling it down to what it means for Christians.

I listened to his analysis of the SCOTUS decision and it is superlative. I learned, sadly, that the news from the Court is even worse than we thought. The three streams of thought I gleaned from Dr Mohler’s article “Everything has changed and nothing has changed” analyzing the SCOTUS decision:

1. It’s worse for Christians. “Justice Clarence Thomas warned in his dissent of “ruinous consequences for religious liberty.” … Justice Samuel Alito stated bluntly that the decision “will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy.”

2. It’s worse for marriage. “The Kennedy opinion opens wide a door that basically invites looming demands for the legalization of polygamy and polyamory. As Chief Justice Roberts observed: “It is striking how much of the majority’s reasoning would apply with equal force to the claim of a fundamental right to plural marriage.”

3. It’s worse for the Republic. “The Supreme Court’s over-reach in this case is more astounding as the decision is reviewed in full, and as the dissenting justices voiced their own urgent concerns. The Chief Justice accused the majority of “judicial policymaking” that endangers our democratic form of government.”

Listen to Special Edition of The Briefing or read the above article (it’s not the transcript) for context as to why each of those three will soon no longer be recognizable.

I know, no one wants to hear that the decision is much worse than we thought, because it’s already pretty bad. We want good news, we want to stay above the fray. I personally believe that this was a significant advance for satan, however. God lengthened the leash satan is on and it extended almost to the limit, perhaps. We are not to be unaware of his schemes, and we MUST be prepared. It is a spiritual battle after all, and though we don’t have to absorb every crumb of satan’s doings nor read every piece of news, this one above all is important to understand. The Briefing does that. Listen to it.

That said, I’m going to reverse myself. The culture at Sodom was worse than it is in America. The culture at Corinth was worse than it is currently in America.

I truly believe that in listening to The Briefing Special Edition, however, and/or reading the transcript (when it’s up) or the linked article, that we are WELL on our way to becoming Sodom or Corinth.

James R. White posted on Facebook this morning

God: We do not want You, Your ways, or Your law. We are our own creators, we are autonomous. We hate your good gifts—the gift of marriage, the gift of gender. We no longer want the joy of motherhood, fatherhood. We will make women husbands, men wives. We will twist and pervert everything that gives us life and light. Go away. Leave us alone.

God’s answer: as you wish.

He also posted this collage of iconic buildings or places in the US that celebrated and applauded (Romans 1:32) the nationalization of sodomy by splashing rainbow colored lights on them:

Really brings it home when you see rainbow-gay splashed coast to coast…Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

However there is no need to panic.

‘Outrage and Panic’ Are Off-Limits, Say Evangelical Leaders on Same-Sex Marriage

For most evangelical leaders, today’s discussion of the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage revolves around how best to express their dissent amid the legal uncertainties for churches and pastors.

“Outrage and panic are not the responses of those confident in the promises of a reigning Christ Jesus,” read a joint statement organized by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and signed by more than 100 evangelical leaders, including David Platt, J. I. Packer, Richard Mouw, Jim Daly, Al Mohler, and Ron Sider.

“While we believe the Supreme Court has erred in its ruling, we pledge to stand steadfastly, faithfully witnessing to the biblical teaching that marriage is the chief cornerstone of society, designed to unite men, women, and children,” the group stated. [Full text]

Someone asked me about what to do in these last days to warn people about the era seemingly coming to a close. How do we warn? What should be our next steps? I responded this way:

I firmly believe that as the world darkens, the Light of Christ will shine brighter. To that end, I also firmly believe our responsibilities are still the same as they always have been since Pentecost, but to be pursued diligently and fervently knowing that we are that much closer to the rapture than Simon Peter was.

1. To remain prayerful. Connection with Jesus through prayer is our energy and power. It’s also commanded.

2. To remain in the word. Reading of and meditation on the word of God is how we keep our sword sharp. The word of God is the ONLY way to break the hardness of a Gentile’s heart and mind. It pierces. We plant the word and the Spirit grows it. But we can’t plant it if we don’t know it, and if we don’t know it we are exposed in this pitched battle that is life on earth. It pierces them, and protects us. And the battle is terrible these days, don’t leave your bible alone for even a day!

3. To find a local congregation, become a member, and to consistently worship there. Make sure to do our parts to use the Spiritual Gifts for the edification of the body. Every platoon at Boot Camp has soldiers who rely on each other, you would not want to para-jump from a plane where you know the person packing your parachute had skipped the class that day. So we go to church without skipping, involve ourselves in fellow believers’ lives, and we use the gifts the Spirit gave us for their edification and they for ours.

4. Speak frequently of prophecy. Not Illuminati/conspiracy/newspaper exegesis. But credible biblical prophecy. Many churches don’t want to or aren’t familiar with prophecy. I speak of the rapture often, and matter-of-factly. I also speak of the wrath a lot. Just because other people DON’T. I study the prophecies in Revelation and talk about them. I bring it up in conversation. The end matters!! If the creation in Genesis 1 is important to the faith and making one wise for understanding, so is Revelation’s UNcreation. As a matter of fact it is the only book of the bible that promises a blessing for reading it. So I try to be an example in fervency to diligently study all of God’s word (so when I exhort biblical truths people will listen because they know I’ve studied and I’m serious about living a holy life). Bring prophecy back into the mainstream, but not sensationally, not by date-setting, but by including it as a normal part of the bible student’s readings and interest. It’s been ignored too long.

5. Live a holy life and not one of hypocrisy. This is all-important, the more we are moral in Christ (not of our own strength) the more we will stand out in the world.

6. Be joyful! If we are just as worried about the way things are going as the pagans are, then we are no different! We have the joy of knowing the future, the peace in being reconciled to God, and the wonder of knowing Him through His word. Show it. That will speak loudly!

7. Witness with urgency, not just because of the last days, but because the person you’re speaking to may die in the next hour. Death (or rapture) comes suddenly and usually unexpectedly. Therefore don’t be afraid to say things like sin-wrath-judgment. God isn’t ashamed of His wrath, we should not be either. Removing all talk of wrath and sin and judgment takes the News out of the Good News. Witnessing is not “God loves you and has a great plan for you life.” If God already loves them then why change, and many people already like the plan they have for their life, again, no impetus to change. But every person has a conscience, understands morality and sin, and secretly wonders about heaven.

So how we act in these last days in the face of looming fulfilled prophecy is not sexy nor mystical. It is really no different than a person would have in 1843 or 1721 or 1698 or 1400 or 65AD.

As for prophecy, I’m not writing books about last days signs and I’m not doing numerology to count secret codes and I’m not receiving new revelation prophecies from some kind of trumped up not-Jesus and I’m not on nationwide speaking tours or doing anything that’s any different than the usual Christian’s slog through the bible via hard work and application. Living to His glory is hard but we persevere in joy, and simply growing in holiness is the toughest of all in these days but if and when we do do, it is a beacon to the lost!

So in order to keep our light bright, we continue to look at Jesus. It’s very simple and it’s never changing.

Posted in discernment, encouragement, gay marriage, homosexuality, prophecy, spiritual battle

What does Birmingham’s gay pastor, churches in debt, free speech, and the SCOTUS decision have in common?

Posted on by elizabethprata

I found this news article a few days ago and saved it for when the Supreme Court decided. Here are some of my personal thoughts on the nationalization of homosexuality in America.

Birmingham church hires gay pastor; he’s ready to do same-sex weddings

The Rev. Paul Eknes-Tucker was named senior pastor
of Pilgrim Church on June 1
and preached his first sermon on June 14.

The historic Pilgrim Church in Birmingham [a UCC denomination] has hired an openly gay senior pastor who is ready to officiate same-sex weddings. … He is ready in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court rules to make gay marriage legal nationwide, which could happen next week. “I’m cautiously optimistic that it’s going to happen,” Tucker said.

The United Church of Christ has been a pioneer among Protestant denominations in ordaining women pastors and openly gay ministers. It’s a historic, predominantly white denomination that embraced the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Tucker married his partner, Bill Eknes-Tucker, in Toronto in 2005. Bill is a retired nurse. Tucker said he knows first-hand how his marriage not being legally recognized in Tennessee and Alabama has been a hardship. … The congregation could serve as a major hub for gay weddings. “We’re ready Day One (that gay marriage is ruled legal in Alabama),” he said. “They wanted someone who was ready to do that.

The first gay marriage in my adopted state of Georgia took place at 12:31 pm on the day SCOTUS ruled. This is the “Bible Belt”, the “Deep South”.

 We can see that the homosexual lobby is ready to advance their banner. Are we ready to advance ours? The Banner of Christ? (Exodus 17:15)

I see a few things ahead. Not prophetically, lol, just following the train tracks to the horizon. It’s pretty clear. It is only going to become harder from here on out.

OK, first this SCOTUS ruling allowing gay marriage for all the land will usher in a new phase that will ramp up persecution in America toward churches and Christians. For one, free speech will be squelched. It started already-

Newspaper editorial page bans op-eds opposing gay marriage

Second, as churches and pastors speak out, or refuse to perform homosexual weddings, they will lose their tax-exempt status. This is a problem. Through the early part of the 2000’s, many churches went emergent and in a frenzy, bought bigger buildings. Thus they unwisely (in my opinion) became saddled with a mortgage and/or construction debt, or otherwise chained themselves to capital plans they could not afford. I pray that any upcoming decisions to be made regarding homosexual pressure infiltrating the local churches will not have this reality factored in. However, it is equally true that many pastors are pragmatic and I fear that pragmatism will pollute or at least influence faithful decision making.

Randy Alcorn said it well: [HT to Glenn]

Many churches spend more on interest payments than on world missions. Debt ties the church’s hands. If attendance drops, the economy suffers, or giving dips, then pastors or missionaries must go unpaid. The building completed eight years ago, already needing repairs, keeps demanding those monthly payments, mostly going to interest. . . . When a church overextends itself financially, it inevitably spends time during services trying to persuade people to give to the building fund. This changes the focus from worshiping Christ, studying the Scriptures, and meeting the needs of the community, to concerns about buildings, mortgages, and money.

Third, this ruling has brought out many who believe that homosexuality is not a problem, and I’m not talking about pagans. Self-professed Christians by the droves are applauding it. I have had more than one solid sister or brother in the faith marvel at the number of people who say they are in the faith but exalted a different Jesus and a different Gospel when the Supreme Court decision was handed down. Those who are not with Jesus are scattering for sure.

An aerial photograph showing opposing trenches
and no man’s land between, during World War I. Wikipedia

Fourth, the Birmingham church ready to marry gays by a married, gay pastor. The true church will shrink, become invisible in all the hullaballoo of false “churches” making much of this lifestyle. A cultural Christianity represented in the Birmingham church will take over and surround the true church. The Birmingham church will be seen as the real church of Jesus Christ, (blasphemously).

The true church is not in danger, mind you, I’m not saying that. But the cultural churches like the one in Birmingham will become visible, and if the the true church is seen at all, it will be seen as outdated at the least, and dangerous at the most. The timid pastors unwilling to stand for the faith will become absorbed in the flow, which yesterday became tsunami force. Fearing their position, or their paycheck, or their liberal deacons, or the neighborhood…they will change their position and weaken. Many churches will become like the Birmingham church, sadly. If it only took satan 20 years to fully change America’s position on homosexuality so that the highest court in the land would nationalize perversity. What hay do you think satan can make of false churches now that the pendulum has swung so far?

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. (Matthew 12:30)

Gill’s Exposition on Matthew 12:30,

and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth: Christ is the good shepherd, that gathers his sheep to himself, and into his fold, by the external ministry of the word, and internal efficacy of his grace; Satan is the wolf, that catches and scatters the sheep, and seeks to kill and destroy them: and since there is such an open war proclaimed and carried on between Christ and the devil, none ought to be neutral; whoever is not on the side of Christ, is reckoned as an enemy; and whoever is not concerned by prayer or preaching, or other means to gather souls to his word and ordinances, and to his church, and to himself, is deemed by him a scatterer of them.

There is no middle ground. There is no No Man’s Land where no trench is dug from one side or the other. A person is either in one trench, or the other. Even those who declare their neutrality are actually with satan because they are not overtly with Jesus, as the Matthew 12:30 verse reminds us.

My advice is:

  • To remain prayerfully vigilant, in prayer, by praying. Do you see the theme? Pray! Our connection in Jesus is our strength, His strength, energized by prayer.
  • Prepare to have your views challenged and be ready to answer all with a meek but firm response. 1 Peter 3:15 REALLY comes into play now more than ever.
  • Thus, read the Bible. If you have been woefully neglectful of late, stop it. Soldiers do not ignore orders, policemen do not neglect what their Captain tells them. Jesus is our Commander-in-Chief. His battle plan IS the Bible. Neglect it no longer.
  • Believe the spiritual battle is real. Believe you are a target.

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; 32but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32).

Did you catch that? ‘when you have turned again’. Jesus was predicting Peter’s denial and restoration. Blessedly, our enemy’s plans are also in Jehovah-Nissi’s Bible! We are not unaware of satan’s schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:11)

  • Therefore pray for each other that our faith may not fail when put to the test.

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:9)

—————————————
Further Reading:

The faithful in the Lord’s warfare–

The LORD is our Banner, Jehovah Nissi, a study by Alexander MacLaren

Precept Austin: The LORD is our Banner, an inductive study of Exodus 17:8-16. (Scroll down a bit)

Focus on the Family: Prayer and the Spiritual Battle

GotQuestions: What does the Bible say about spiritual warfare?