prophecy – Page 38

celebrity, fall, megapastor, prophecy, tullian tchividjian

(UPDATED & UPDATED) Tullian Tchividjian: It’s not the celebrity pastor, megachurch model that is the problem

Posted on June 22, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Updates at bottom. And still more updates at bottom.

Here is a kind of a part 2:
Fallen Pastors can still lead- here’s how

Billy Graham’s grandson steps down from Florida megachurch after admitting an affair

Billy Graham’s grandson Tullian Tchividjian has resigned from his pulpit at Coral Ridge Presbyterian, a high-profile church in south Florida, after admitting he had an affair. He released the following statement to The Washington Post, saying it was on behalf of him and his wife:

I resigned from my position at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church today due to ongoing marital issues. As many of you know, I returned from a trip a few months back and discovered that my wife was having an affair. Heartbroken and devastated, I informed our church leadership and requested a sabbatical to focus exclusively on my marriage and family. As her affair continued, we separated. Sadly and embarrassingly, I subsequently sought comfort in a friend and developed an inappropriate relationship myself. Last week I was approached by our church leaders and they asked me about my own affair. I admitted to it and it was decided that the best course of action would be for me to resign. Both my wife and I are heartbroken over our actions and we ask you to pray for us and our family that God would give us the grace we need to weather this heart wrenching storm. We are amazingly grateful for the team of men and women who are committed to walking this difficult path with us. Please pray for the healing of deep wounds and we kindly ask that you respect our privacy.

source

Tchividjian is pronounced Cha-vij-in. It’s Armenian. His mother is the oldest of Billy Graham’s children. Tchividjian is the nephew of Franklin Graham.

The first public news of this broke late last night. I was saddened and my spirit was in turmoil. I slept restlessly, awakening to read a rousing chorus of mainstream news article and many bloggers joining the chorus of wh-at?!

Monday Morning, Mrs Kim Tchividjian released a statement to the same newspaper, that indicated she has a different version of events than her husband’s.

Monday morning:

“The statement reflected my husband’s opinions but not my own. Please respect the privacy of my family at this time, thank you. I do thank everyone for the outpouring of love for my family as well during this difficult time and we appreciate all the prayers and support we are receiving.”

I had wondered if the two of them wrote the initial statement sent to the Washington Post together, or if he had released it himself. I also wondered even if it was true, why the husband would not want to cover his wife and leave her behavior out if it in his own admission.

What can I, a quiet, non-seminary trained layperson in a rural part of a southern state contribute to the discussion? I’m really nobody, so not too much, but I’ll add a few thoughts. I was preparing to write about John MacArthur today, but this happening now will provide an even better bookend of the extolling I want to do regarding wise and solid pastors (best represented of living pastors in MacArthur). Then I’ll point you to some resources that I believe are better for shedding light on this dark situation.

First the personal. I have seen the effects of adultery in a marriage close-up. When two are married, especially under the Lord’s ordinance as Christians, they become one flesh. Adultery rips the one flesh apart, and it is painful. It hurts in a way that practically no other grief can hurt. Only spousal death is more painful (I imagine) but adultery is almost worse because it is not only a ripping apart, as death is, it’s a betrayal of monstrous proportions.

I can’t imagine the heartbreak in their family right now, and a double adultery is towering in its devastation. They have three children.

The Tchividjian family

For pastors the temptation is even worse. It seems there are always available ladies fluttering around, ready to fill in any gaps, real or perceived, in a pastor’s marital situation. And pastors are only men, just men, under stress and overworked and having weighty responsibilities. I understand we are all human and I am glad we have a Savior who understands our human frailties. (Hebrews 4:15).

However the danger of celebrity lifestyles is in view here. A pastor’s primary responsibility is to his flock. Period. This is a non-negotiable. Tied for that primary responsibility/calling is his responsibility to his family. Pastors who are “rising stars,” “prolific authors”, “sought after speakers” mix unbiblical responsibilities with biblical mandates and soon their perspective shifts from Jesus to self. The ones who start extra-biblical parachurches, movements, global outreaches. Tchividjian started the movement “LIBERATE” and his stated reason was “our big goal being to reform Christianity on a global scale” Is that a pastor’s job? To take his eyes of his own flock to reform Christianity? Even the great reformer Martin Luther didn’t have reformation as a goal. He simply asked 95 questions, he didn’t form a focus group, hire website designers, install contributors, then post the 95 questions on the Door at Wittenberg. It was a Spirit-led, organic movement. But today’s celebrity pastors sure do enjoy the book tours, conferences, speaking engagements.

I’m not saying a pastor should never write a book, nor am I saying a pastor should never fill another pulpit or speak at a conference. I’m speaking of the lifestyle and a slow but poisonous gravitation toward a shift in perspective when one shifts their eyes from their primary calling. Here is Joe Thorn on Dethroning Celebrity Pastors.

The “celebrity pastor” is now a thing. Maybe it’s always been a thing (1 Cor. 1:10-17), but over the past few years it has become a source of concern and consternation for many. On the one hand I do see a problem, and on the other hand I can’t help but feel that some speak against popular preachers out of a sense of jealousy. I do not think that a pastor whose “platform” is large, influence is broad, and following is numerous is a celebrity pastor. At least, not in a bad way. The real problem is leadership that loses sight of the glory of Christ and focuses on the glory of man. Or, at least one man.

But Celebrity Pastors do not simply build themselves. They are built with the help of fans. It’s not wrong or idolatrous to get a photo with a person you admire. Nor is it dangerous to love the preaching or teaching of a particular leader. But at some point admiration turns into allegiance, and allegiance gives birth to adoration, and adoration, when it is full grown, produces idolatry. I am not sure exactly when the line is crossed–maybe when we start asking well-known pastors to sign our Bibles. Maybe. But the line is well behind us when a leader’s word is more valuable to us than God’s word and when they become our authority.

Source

It’s the losing sight of the glory of God that is the downfall. Pastors who overextend beyond the pulpit will fall. We have seen this borne out time and again. Tchividjian is the fourth megachurch pastor in Florida alone just this year alone, to resign in sin. Then there’s CJ Mahaney, Mark Driscoll…the list goes on. In 2011 John Piper took an 8-month leave of absence from all his duties as pastor and media celebrity expressly to re-evaluate his life. He’d drifted, you see, from the primary goal. He wrote in part that his main goals were four-fold:

to enter this eight-month season of detachment from public exposure and public productivity with a view to serious biblical examination, assessment, nurture, and growth in four areas: 1) our own individual persons, both physically and spiritually; 2) our marriage; 3) our relationship with our children and their families; 4) our pattern of ministry on returning to Bethlehem.

He had begun to recognize the poisonous cup that fame and notoriety brings,

You could view this as a kind of fasting from public ministry. One of the goals in this kind of fasting is to discern levels of addiction. Or, as Paul Tripp or Tim Keller might say, levels of idolatry. The reality check is: What will happen in my soul and in my marriage when, to use the phrase of one precious brother on staff, there will be no ‘prideful sipping from the poisonous cup of international fame and notoriety’?

And that poisonous cup led to a wedge between he and his wife. Families need tending.

But on the other hand, I see several species of pride in my soul that, while they may not rise to the level of disqualifying me for ministry, grieve me, and have taken a toll on my relationship with Noël and others who are dear to me.

It remains to be seen whether his time away strengthened him or allowed the poison to continue but in a slower fashion when still riding the roller coaster of fame and notoriety.
Gross sin among Christian leaders is a signal that something is seriously wrong with the church.
~John MacArthur
Yet pastors who remain true to their primary calling will not fall, we have seen this again and again. There are pastors who lead megachurches, celebrity pastors John MacArthur, fifty years and not a hint of scandal. S. Lewis Johnson, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Charles Spurgeon, all long lasting pastors who pastored their churches steadily without scandal. Each was just as busy as Tchividjian. Each were or are famous in their own right. MacArthur is busy, he started a college and seminary, has a global media outreach, a daily radio show, preaches several times per week in church, is a prolific author, and attends conferences several times per year. Not to mention the appearance on television (rarer nowadays). Spurgeon was busy. He started a college, and an orphanage, preached 10 times per week, read 6 books per week, kept up with correspondence and preached to thousands at a time. He worked 18 hour days. Was his the World’s First Megachurch?

As a case in point, Spurgeon preached regularly, often 10 times in a week to audiences of 6,000 and more. He once addressed an audience of 23,654 (without aid of amplification).

Actually, the world’s first megachurch was Peter addressing the thousands at Pentecost and the weeks and months after. And they were celebrities as 1 Corinthians 1:12 shows us. So what makes the difference between busy, famous pastors who fall and those who do not?

Ministry Mag: Why Pastors Fall into Sin

the pattern in their relationship that preceded the fall was similar. In earlier years, they had a call of God upon their lives, a passion in their marriage and zeal for the ministry. But somewhere along the way, misplaced priorities led to a gradual decline in intimacy, and ministry began to take precedence over relationship.

Ed Stetzer wrote in Christianity Today last year, When Pastors Fall: Why Full and Public Repentance Matters

Pastor scandals happen. Needless to say, I don’t say that with any enthusiasm. In fact, it is greatly discouraging to me, but it’s true nonetheless. Furthermore, this is not just a recent phenomenon, though the evangelical world has been filled with reports over the last few months. It’s just disheartening. … What’s more, unless we pastors engage in public repentance, our “bold” preaching about sin and grace often appears to be little more than window dressing. In other words, what we believe about God, sin and grace is proven true when we treat our own sin as seriously as we say others should. Too many leaders are not repenting in accordance to scripture and too many churches don’t know how to work through repentance to restoration. Both matter– and scripture provides a path for both.

It remains to be seen of Tchividjian professes a full and complete repentance, and submits himself to a long process of counseling and restoration at his church under the Presbytery. Given that he apparently hid his adultery from Paul Tripp who had counseled him a few days before and only confessed it when directly asked…doesn’t seem to give rise to immediate optimism. His use of the passive tense in his statement “it was decided” he should resign seems to indicate he has a less than full and thorough grasp of his biblical responsibilities of the situation. Again, time will tell.

Coral Ridge church, Ft. Lauderdale

Ultimately the loss of a pastor and the destruction of a family is something one heavily grieves over. More grievous is the blight on the name of Jesus. Pastors are due double honor, rightly so. (1 Timothy 5:17). They are to be respected for their calling, their office, and their work. However their accountability is doubly high (James 3:1) and therefore grief associated with them when they fall below reproach is also worthy of double grief.

It brings such reproach onto the faith and the name of Jesus! Just a few of the heathens’ comments:

Another member of the morality police falls from grace.
Most of us don’t run around demanding that everyone do whatever we tell them to though. And we don’t try to pass laws banning everything we don’t like. They on the other hand are gigantic hypocrites
I’ll never trust anyone that peddles gods word for money. They’re salesmen. lots of money to be made in the god racket.

I’m not reveling in this. As I said, I had a restless night with little sleep. I thought about the Tchividjian children. However, there needs to be a perspective of the larger reality. Pastors sliding into sin is an age-old problem, because sin is an age-old problem. However, the problem of pastors falling into sin, particularly sexual sin, is by this point in today’s world endemic in our faith. It is practically a given, and it should not be.

Secondly, too many Christians are biblically illiterate. When a pastor scandal happens they immediately call for a restoration- not to fellowship, but to their ministry, and worse, they believe this is helpful to the cause of Christ. It’s not.

Here is John MacArthur on fallen pastors. This was written some time ago and is not a response to the Tchividjian situation.

Should Fallen Pastors Be Restored?
By John MacArthur, September 28, 2009

Excerpts

It has always saddened me over the years as I’ve watched church leaders bring a reproach on the church of Jesus Christ. What’s shocking to me is how frequently Christian leaders sin grossly, then step back into leadership almost as soon as the publicity dies away.

Some time ago I received a CD that disturbed me greatly. It was a recording of the recommissioning service of a pastor who had made national news by confessing to an adulterous affair. After little more than a year of “counseling and rehabilitation,” this man was returning to public ministry with his church’s blessing.

That is happening everywhere. Restoration teams–equipped with manuals to instruct the church on how to reinstate their fallen pastor–wait like tow-truck drivers on the side of the highway, anticipating the next leadership “accident”. Our church has received inquiries wondering if we have written guidelines or a workbook to help restore fallen pastors to leadership. Many no doubt expect that a church the size of ours would have a systematic rehabilitation program for sinning leaders.

Gross sin among Christian leaders is a signal that something is seriously wrong with the church. …

What about forgiveness? Shouldn’t we be eager to restore our fallen brethren? To fellowship, yes. But not to leadership. It is not an act of love to return a disqualified man to public ministry; it is an act of disobedience.

What should you do in the current crisis? Pray for your church’s leaders. Keep them accountable. Encourage them. Let them know you are following their godly example. Understand that they are not perfect, but continue nonetheless to call them to the highest level of godliness and purity. The church must have leaders who are genuinely above reproach. Anything less is an abomination.

Please pray for your pastor. Pray for him to stay on the narrow path and energized by a renewing of his mind daily in the word. The sing of the last days is an increase in wickedness, particularly inside the church. (Mt 24:12, 1 Peter 4:17, 2 Timothy 3:1-5). Stay in the Word yourself, especially if you are in leadership.

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Cor 9:27)

This is the takeaway. As I read in one essay, satan works overtime in the bedroom of the mind, and pastors and leaders are especially vulnerable. It isn’t a celebrity problem. It isn’t a megachurch problem. It is straying from the primary goal, to stay within the narrow confines of a path that is only as wide as the letters J-E-S-U-S. It’s not about global reformation, it is not about publish or perish, It is not about getting a prime speaking deal. It is not, if you are a pastor of a small church, getting a bigger building, initializing another program. It is an issue of priorities. Jesus-family-flock. The pastors of a church of any size who maintained a healthy prayer and bible life stayed. The ones who didn’t, strayed.

Yet, as a layperson I am wearied by these successive pastor scandals. Come soon, Lord Jesus.

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Further Reading

Updated to add several other essays in reaction tot he scandal, plus two of MacArthur’s blogs on hypergrace, published prior to the scandal becoming public.

This esay addresses what I believe are the three elephants in the room, Tullian’s blame-shifting, his sinful decision on how he addressed his wife’s alleged adultery, and his free-to-fail grace stance,
An Open Letter to Tullian Tchividjian

By Marshal Segal, When Leaders Fall, All Are Punished, with this excellent quote, “Heaven is not thrown into crisis with a scandal, however shocking or hard the fall.”

Chris Rosebrough (Pirate Christian) over-wrought and emotional with some excessive hyperbole, (“I just witnessed one of the most elaborate satanic schemes pulled off in modern history.” Nooo, that would be the elaborate scheme of the Catholic Church), but important for the fact that Pastor Chris was invited to Coral Ridge to counsel in the days prior to the scandal breaking and thus truly has a unique perspective:
My Perspective on Tullian’s Sin

In this one from The Cripplegate, Jordan Standridge offers his view of Ten Lessons from the Tullian Tchividjian Confession. It is very good. I also enjoyed one of the commenters, Greg Pickle, who offered several wise insights, including this about the conscience-killing effects of hypergrace, and the importance of public rebuke. His entire comment is excellent and should be read in its entirety, as well as the essay itself.

Public rebuke makes people *fearful* of sinning (1 Tim. 5:20). That’s where this confession should lead, whether he is rebuked or not. Paul had no problem naming names when showing Timothy (and the Ephesian church) the deadly fruit of not fighting the good fight of faith and of rejecting a good conscience (1 Tim. 1:18-20).

When he has been happy to sell his books and spread his articles to people in the churches I have shepherded, I have no problem pointing out the devastating fruit of this kind of theology. I’m not going to gloat, but rather pray for him and those involved, while yet saying: “This is exactly where this theology leads.”

Regeneration & Hypergrace (MacArthur on Tchividjian and Coral Ridge are ground zero for Hypergrace Theology)

Abusing Grace (MacArthur on Tchividjian on overemphasizing the role of grace)

Tullian Tchividjian’s Sin and Resignation Attracts Prayers and Piranhas

On Living In Stained Glass Houses

Tullian Tchividjian stripped of ministerial credentials

Tullian Tchividjian files for divorce

There was little public information available about the divorce filing. Under Florida law, one party must establish that the marriage is “irretrievably broken” in order for the union to be dissolved. Tullian and his wife, Kim, married in 1994 and have three children.

And yet, God hates divorce and under most circumstances does not allow it. Grounds for divorce in God’s Law

blood, death, prophecy, salvation, tribulation, wrath

How many will die in the Tribulation?

Posted on June 18, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

If you watched Monty Python’s Holy Grail movie then you’ll remember the scenes of the plague where the corpse gatherer shouts “Bring out your dead!” (I watched Monty Python in the 70s way before I was saved, don’t judge me).

The London plague of 1665 is synopsized in the UK National Archives this way:

This was the worst outbreak of plague in England since the black death of 1348. London lost roughly 15% of its population. While 68,596 deaths were recorded in the city, the true number was probably over 100,000. Other parts of the country also suffered.

The earliest cases of disease occurred in the spring of 1665 in a parish outside the city walls called St Giles-in-the-Fields. The death rate began to rise during the hot summer months and peaked in September when 7,165 Londoners died in one week.

This artwork depicts the general attitude during the height of the plague.

The plague was nothing, nothing, compared to the upcoming Tribulation. Let’s look at what God promises for unbelievers left behind

Current world population (estimate) – 7,321,593,981. That’s 7 billion with a b.

Revelation 6:7-8 says,
When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.

So in rapid order, 25% of the earth’s people will die. A quarter of 7.3 billion people is 1,830,398,495 dead. That’s 1.8 Billion dead. Remember the 2004 Banda Aceh Christmas day tsunami that killed 250,000 people? Bodies washing up everywhere? Multiply that by tens of thousands and millions and you have some idea of the deaths that will take place when the fourth seal is opened. It will happen fast, too. The entire Tribulation will only be as long as 7 years, and the Seal judgments are opened at the outset, so pretty quickly bodies will pile up in the streets.

So after a fourth of the population dies, we have 5,491,195,486 remaining on earth. That’s 5.4 Billion people.

Revelation 9:18 says that another third will die quickly also, this time in the Trumpet Judgment. “By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.”

This means that a third of 5.4 billion people will die. That’s another 1,812,094,510 billion dead. Billion with a B.

By now there are 3,679,100,976 people left. Of course there area great many fewer because countless numbers die in the wars, die or are killed due to violence because of no restraint on sin, and secondary causes like fires from unattended gas lines or cholera or starvation. So let’s estimate another billion have died from all those causes. That leaves 2.6 billion people and that is only halfway through the Tribulation. We have gone from 7.3 billion people down to 2 billion- or less.

I suspect the death from sin will be much higher than we even can comprehend. The Holy Spirit will not be restraining sin at all. All men will be able to be as bad as they can be, moral depravity will be at highest levels ever. People will kill with impunity, for no reason, just to see you die. They will die from drugs and alcohol other bodily excesses, illness, starvation, and likely suicides. We know that the world will be used to looking at death with no problem, because by the time the Two Witnesses are killed their bodies are allowed to putrefy in the street for three and a half days while the entire world looks at them and dances in joy over their death. (Revelation 11:9-10)

3,642,493,005 or half the current population will for a fact die. All those bodies laying around is unimaginable. Here is one graphic that shows 1 Billion pennies. This is only 1 billion, remember, and they are pennies, very small, not human bodies.

Source

Jesus said that if he did not come back, ALL FLESH would die. (Matthew 24:22). When you try to imagine the numbers of corpses it become a horror, unimaginable and hopeless. Burials will not keep up. Every zombie/apocalypse/plague/outbreak/dystopian movie you ever watched won’t even come close. The Left Behind movies were sanitized like meat under cellophane compared to the slaughterhouse the meat came from. The overriding feature of the Tribulation will be…blood.

The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. (Revelation 8:7)

And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:20)

When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:9-10)

The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea. (Revelation 16:3)

And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly. (Revelation 17:6)

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. (Revelation 20:4)

People say that the Bible is a tale of two cities, Jerusalem and Babylon. We could say without stretching it that the Age of Grace is about the blood of Jesus- Holy blood. And the Tribulation is about the blood of sinners- Judgment blood.

So when I hear someone say “I’m a pantheist, it’ll all pan out in the end,” I know that person has no conception of the prophetic plan of God. They have no care for the billions of people who will die like animals under God’s judgment. The deaths, the stench of death, the desensitization regarding death, it all will be on a scale the mind will not be able to comprehend.

Yet each one of those deaths represent a soul, made in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27)

Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
that he should live on forever
and never see the pit. (Psalm 49:7-9)

No person, regardless of his means, is able to escape death; it is inevitable. (Hebrews 9:27) This passage anticipates the second death of hell, (cf. Rev. 20-11:15), except those who by faith have repented of their sin and embraced the only adequate ransom, the one paid by the Lord Jesus Christ by His death on the cross. (cf. Matthew 20:28, 1 Peter 1:18-19). ~John MacArthur

Knowing we live in the Age of Grace and were saved in it should give us knee-weakening, heart stopping gratitude to Jesus. And knowing what is ahead for the world and its people should give us knee-weakening, heart stopping fear of God and His mighty power and Holy wrath. He is coming soon.

Be ready.
Live like you’re ready.
Witness like it’s your last day on earth, because it’s could be- for you or for that person.

prophecy, providence, rapture, sovereignty

In the fulness of time…

Posted on June 17, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

One of my favorite attributes of God is His sovereignty. One of my favorite doctrines is the Doctrine of Providence. And one of my favorite themes which neatly expresses them is the phrase, “In the fullness of time…” Here are just a few New Testament examples showing God in charge of all things, including events He wants to occur at a certain time.

Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,”

Mark 1:15, “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!“

Romans 5:6, You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

1 Timothy 2:6, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

Let’s go back to Galatians 4:4, the fulness of time. In the John MacArthur Commentary on Galatians, we read,

The fulness of time refers to the period of preparation in God’s sovereign timetable of redemption. When the Law had fully accomplished its purpose of showing man his utter sinfulness and inability to live up to God’s perfect standard of righteousness, God ushered in a new era of redemption. When He sent forth His son, He provided the righteousness for man that man could not provide for himself.

On a spiritual level, we can intuitively understand this is what is meant by the fulness of time, even if our lesser scholarly minds don’t articulate it as well as Dr MacArthur. But in Providential terms, widening our look at the sweep and scope of all redemptive history, the phrase “the fulness of time” takes on even greater and deeper significant implications regarding the sovereignty of God and His divine Providential outworking of all things to His glory. MacArthur again,

When Jesus was born, everything was right for the coming of the Messiah. First of all, the time was right religiously. During the Babylonian captivity, Israel once and for all forsook the idolatry into which she had often fallen. Despite their many other sins and failures, including national rejection of their own Messiah, no significant number of Jews has ever again turned to idolatry.

Also during the Exile, Jews developed synagogues, which they used as places of worship, as schools, and as courts. In addition to that, they at last had the completed Old Testament, assembled by Ezra and others after the return from Babylon. Those features facilitated the proclaiming of the Messiah’s gospel among the people of Israel.

Second, the time was right culturally. Christians who propagated the gospel during the first several centuries had a common language with those to whom they witnessed and with whom they worshiped. Alexander the Great had thoroughly established Greek culture and language throughout the known world, and these continued their dominating influence long after Rome succeeded Greece as world ruler.

Third, the time was right politically. Rome had instituted the pax Romana (Roman peace), which provided economic and political stability. The apostles and other early preachers and teachers cold travel freely and safely throughout the empire and do so on the magnificent system of roads built by the Romans.

Each of those factors was in some unique way a key to the spread of the gospel. God’s timing was perfect.

It is such a comfort to understand everything is in God’s hands.

I have traveled extensively in Italy, including Rome. I’ve rented a car and over several visits, I’ve driven all up and down the peninsula, from Milan and Lake Como to Rome to the Adriatic to France. North, south, north, east, and west. You’ve heard the adage, “All roads lead to Rome”? They really do.

The Miliarium Aureum (golden milestone) was a monument, probably of gilded bronze, erected by the Emperor Caesar Augustus near the temple of Saturn in the central Forum of Ancient Rome. All roads were considered to begin from this monument and all distances in the Roman Empire were measured relative to that point. On it were perhaps listed all the major cities in the empire and distances to them. According to Schaaf, the phrase “all roads lead to Rome” is a reference to the Milliarium Aureum, as the specific point to which all roads were said to lead. Today, the base of the milestone might still exist in the Roman Forum. (Wikipedia)

The Umbilicus Urbis Romae —”Navel of the City of Rome”—was the symbolic centre of the city from which, and to which, all distances in Ancient Rome were measured. It was situated in the Roman Forum where its remnants can still be seen. (Wikipedia)

I’ve been to the Forum and seen the marble mile markers, strolled on the Via Appia, seen the hardiness of the roads, the ancient cobblestones still there, still level, still providing passage for all manner of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. I’ve driven down the smallest of roads on the tallest of Apennines and come to a crossroad and there will be a sign. Rome, that way.

All roads lead to Rome. EPrata photo

I can just imagine what a delight it was for Christians moving between cities and between regions to walk or ride a horse or donkey bearing the Good News from town to town. It is a delight today, back then it was a marvel. Yet those Roman roads under the Roman peace allowed for a fast dispersal of the Good News, the tidings of a Risen Christ and salvation for sinners.

And the note about Alexander the Great, and his empire and the Greek language? We do not for a moment believe that was an accident, do we? We know for a fact that the Greek empire was foretold 600 years before Christ came, as we read in Daniel 2 about King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue of succeeding empires. The Greek kingdom was foretold as the second after the King’s own empire of Babylonians and after the empire of Medes and Persians. The Roster of empires goes: Babylonian, Media-Persia, Greek, Roman, Revived Roman, or Antichrist’s Empire.

Do we believe that God looked down and said, “Oh good, Alexander is instituting Greek everywhere, that will be sooo helpful when my servants spread the Good News.” Of course not! God is in control of history, because He writes it. He determines the times, and He providentially organizes when the time is right and full for the next part of His plan to come to fruition.

Understanding God’s sovereignty, His Divine Providence, and His timing encourages us. Because, the world today could otherwise be very unsettling and to unbiblical eyes, even look chaotic.

Young boy lured to gay lifestyle

A major advertisement, where Lesbians enjoy Chobani yogurt after perverted sex

Dangerous killers on the loose could “literally be anywhere”, elude capture

Police Officer (representing civil authority) shot dead
in clearly marked patrol car (New Orleans)

400 year dormancy of Sinabung Volcano ends with a bang

Escapes zoo animals on the loose; tiger kills 1, injures 1

It looks like the world is coming upside down, with civil authority under attack, perversity is the norm, zoo animals hunt humans, and unexpected or scientifically abnormal natural disasters.

Yet God, in the fulness of time, causes or allows each of these things to happen and in the background unknown to us, each event furthers His glory and ushers the moment when we will hear the joyous words,

COME UP HERE!

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

God’s timing is always perfect.

In His timing, we will fly! EPrata photo

fig tree, micah, prophecy

Under the fig tree

Posted on June 15, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

EPrata photo

Here is something pleasant in store during the Millennium:

but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. (Micah 4:4)

In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree. (Zechariah 3:10).

Gill’s Exposition says of the Micah verse,

It was usual for persons in the eastern countries to sit under vines and fig trees to read, meditate, pray, or converse together, where they grow very large, as were their vines; and even with us they are frequently raised and carried over supporters, so as to be sat under; and of fig trees, we frequently read in Jewish writings of their being very large, and of their going up to them, and praying on the top of them; and of sitting under them, and studying in the law there.

What a promise to Israel! S. Lewis Johnson preached on the verse in the sermon Jehovah Supreme from His Temple in Zion

Therefore, if someone in Micah’s day had pondered what the prophet was saying, “Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap or ruins,” he would have known, had he pondered those promises correctly, that while Jerusalem does face a time of chastisement and a time of judgment, that’s not the end for Jerusalem. Jerusalem has a glorious future.

The ruin of Jerusalem and their present disobedience as a nation cannot negate the covenantal pledges that God has given in the Abrahamic promises which were renewed to Isaac and to Jacob. They cannot be annulled because God has given his word that they will be fulfilled. And remember our great biblical principle: the God of the Bible cannot be frustrated insofar as his purposes are concerned. He will fulfill all his purposes. So, when we come to the fourth chapter, we come realizing that Jerusalem becoming a heap of ruins is not the final account of the future of Israel.

One of the many blessed benefits of the fulfillment of the Micah verse will be as Johnson explains,

And furthermore, when the decisions are rendered, the media will not turn to the republicans or the democrats and give the opposite side giving them an opportunity to quibble over decisions that are made by the high authorities. And that in itself is enough of a relief for us to say, Hallelujah when we think about the kingdom of God upon the earth. We’re not going to be told, Now what do others say about this? But when things come from Jerusalem, that’s the final word. He is the arbiter of peace.

LOL, no more ~~talking~~ yelling heads at Fox News or CNN. Here is another blessing the prophet Micah foretells:

The most significant thing about this of course is the freedom from fear that we finally have. But of course this can only be fulfilled by the prior condition of the opening lines of this chapter. And of course, the prior condition is submission to Yahweh, Israel’s God, because that is implicit in this whole account. All of these blessings that he unfolds here are blessing that proceed out of the fact that the day is coming when men are going to submit to the God of Israel or Yahweh.

What a day that will be.

culture, jenner. dolezal, morality, prophecy, woe

Jenner and Dolezal, evil is good and good is evil, Isaiah’s warning hovers over America

Posted on June 14, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

There have been multiple news stories regarding these three issues depicted in the panorama below. I saw the photo on twitter and it sparked something in my mind from the book of Isaiah. The original photo was a quartet but I cut the fourth photo from the array because it was political and not moral.

Any mature Christian with eyes in their face and a brain cell left in their head can see the astounding moral decay here in America that is accelerating at breakneck speed. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler responded to this question recently in this article: Albert Mohler on How to Survive a Moral Revolution

How did in the span of a generation an entire moral understanding in North America become reversed? And how did this moral revolution happen so fast?

Mohler: We’ve never experienced anything like this. . . . And the bottom line is that no part of the culture is going to be left untouched. . . . We haven’t had any moral revolution on this scale in human history.

“Reversed” is a good way to put it. Everything is upside down and it did happen fast, in my lifetime. Words have no meaning anymore, especially words that are attached to what used to contain any semblance of a moral philosophy, never mind moral absolutes. Growing up we never dreamed that a man would identify as a woman and a white lady would identify as a black person.

If Rachel Dolezal isn’t black how is Caitlyn Jenner a woman?

Spokane NAACP president Rachel Dolezal, a professor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University, was outed earlier this week by her parents as being white. In what has to be one of the more bizarre news stories of 2015, Dolezal pretended for years to be black. Social media accounts posted pictures of a black man who she said was her father (he’s not). She regularly wrote about her black son Izaiah (he’s actually her adopted brother). It also appears as though she repeatedly lied about being the victim of race-based hate crimes. She claims to have been the victim of at least nine separate hate crimes. As you might expect, this story has gotten a lot of attention, namely because Dolezal isn’t black.

NAACP is the acronym for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Not the National Association for the Advancement of White People Pretending to Be Black. But for Dolezal, for years she claimed to be Black because she wanted to be Black.

Elizabeth Warren is the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts, formerly a Professor at Law with Harvard Law School. “Starting in the mid-1980s, when she was at U. Penn. Law School, Warren had put herself on the “Minority Law Teacher” list in the faculty directory of the Association of American Law Schools but dropped from that list when she gained tenure at Harvard in 1995” as it states in the Elizabeth Warren Wiki. It was Bloggers and Reporters that uncovered Warren’s 30-year history of claiming to be Native American for employment purposes. For 30 years Elizabeth Warren claimed to be Native American because she wanted to be Native American.

Bruce Jenner was an Olympian and is currently a television celebrity who decided he wanted to appear as a woman. In June 2015 he began using makeup and clothing that women wear to alter his appearance, and insisted on being called by a female name and using female pronouns. Bruce has undergone some minor cosmetic surgery but not the drastic gender reassignment surgery which removes his male appendage. (Which would render him a eunuch but not a woman). He began hormone therapy in the 1990s but stopped that when he got married for the third time. Jenner professes Christianity. Now Jenner claims to be a woman because he wanted to be a woman.

There really is no difference between the three. One White woman who wanted to be Black, one White woman who wanted to be Native American, and one man who wanted to be a woman. It’s simply about lying and personal desire. Of course, the culture awards the sexual perversity in Jenner but slams the lies from the other two.

The Federalist poses the question:

Rachel Dolezal changing her wardrobe, her makeup, and her hair do not make her black. Pretty much everyone seems to agree on that, for obvious reasons. You don’t turn red into blue by magically declaring that red is now blue. And yet, the Left and the media would have us believe that Bruce Jenner can become a woman by…changing his name, his wardrobe, his makeup, and his hair. How can you logically square the belief that Jenner is a hero while Dolezal is a mental case? Well, you can’t.

It’s also about re-defining words. White, black, woman, man, marriage, Christian… none of those words contain a commonly understood moral definition to them anymore.

In Isaiah 5, the prophet declares 6 woes against God’s unrepentant people, Israel. The fourth woe is this one-

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)

MacArthur puts it this way-

The fourth woe condemned the reversal of morality that dominated the nation. They utterly confused all moral distinctions.

Did you catch that? A “reversal of morality.” Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible says,

Who confound and overthrow the distinctions between moral good and evil, who call evil good and moral evil (v. 20), who not only live in the omission of that which is good, but condemn it, argue against it, and, because they will not practise it themselves, run it down in others, and fasten invidious epithets upon it—not only do that which is evil, but justify it, and applaud it, and recommend it to others as safe and good

The woe was pronounced specifically to Israel through the prophet from God. However we know God’s attributes of holiness and justice commands us to adhere to His laws and precepts, and He is not happy with any nation that turns them over. He sent Jonah to preach to the gentile city of Nineveh for the same reason. (Jonah 1:2). And against Damascus (Isaiah 17:10) and against Egypt (Isaiah 19:1). And against Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim. And against Babylon. And against every city and every nation that is wicked. So, yes, the Lord would be angry with America for reversing His morality.

Bible Knowledge Commentary–

Some people lead others astray by their perverted values. Evil-for example, adultery, idolatry, materialism, murder, and many other sins forbidden in the Scriptures-is often held up as being good. Those who say such things are under the threat (woe) of God’s judgment.

Roy E. Gingrich says in his outline on the Book of Isaiah,

Sin sears our conscience (Ephesians 4:19; 1 Timothy 4:2) and destroys our moral nature, leaving us confused concerning what is true and what is false, and what is right and what is wrong.

We see the effects of sin-seared consciences in the New Testament in Romans 1:18-32. Once God’s truth is suppressed in unrighteousness in verse 18, the slide down to complete moral decay is inevitable by verse 32. If there is such a thing as the bottom of the barrel, we’re there. America is sliding around in the muck and sludge at the very bottom, calling good evil and evil good. Woe.

jesus, justice, lake of fire, love, prophecy, wrath

Isaiah’s Prophecy: Looking at God’s wrath…but isn’t God LOVE?

Posted on June 13, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Wrath by EPrata

There is His wrath, justice, and holiness to consider. His holiness, wrath and justice are expressed partly in His glory in saving souls and partly in His glory is rendering wrath unto souls. This verse below closes the book of Isaiah. It is an astounding prophecy and a violent image to be left with-

And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. (Isaiah 66:24).

We know and understand that Isaiah’s prophecy relates to the end of time and the eternal state. Jesus used the reference to the worm that does not die in Mark 9:48, referring to the final state of sinners.

The Sky Be Rolled Back as a Scroll, Rev 6:14. EPrata photo

What are we to make of such a thing? Going out to look at those in the lake of fire?? Why didn’t God hide them? The entire scenario is so unsavory, so putrid, such an assault to future glorified eyes, why put the ones who rebelled on display? Don’t we want to focus on the love of God? Why be so, well, negative?

Yes but He is also Justice! His holiness demands a response to sin. Not only did He NOT purpose to save all men, but He allows us, forgiven sinners, to sink to our knees in gratitude at the display of His wrath upon those who did sin and were not forgiven.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible says of Isaiah 66:24,

It shall not be inconsistent with true love for the godly to look with satisfaction on God’s vengeance on the wicked (Revelation 14:10).

Barnes Notes says,

This is the consummation of the series of bright visions that passed before the mind of Isaiah, and is an appropriate termination of this succession of wonderful revelations. Where could it more appropriately close than in the final triumph of the true religion, and in the complete and final destruction of all the enemies of God. The vision stretches on to the judgment, and is closed by a contemplation of those scenes which commence there, but which never end. The church is triumphant. Its conflicts cease. Its foes are slain. Its Redeemer is revealed; and its everlasting happiness is founded on a basis which can never be shaken.

He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people: (Psalm 50:4).

God saw his glory being despised by sinners—he saw his worth belittled and his name dishonored by our sins—and rather than vindicating the worth of his glory by slaying his people, he vindicated his glory by slaying his Son. ~John Piper, 1992

We are blessed with forever being able to view grace, in gazing at the “Lamb looking as if it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6) and being able to view justice, in gazing at the tormented dead bodies of those who rebelled. God does not hide or diminish or secret away any of His attributes. He is always gloriously on display, from creation to His Son to His Bride to His fulfilled promises to His redeemed people to His justice in vindicating Himself through wrath. We serve a mighty and loving and holy God. Far from being negative…it’s all Good.

And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life,
he was thrown into the lake of fire. Rev 20:15

end time, gay marriage, homosexuality, prophecy, romans

"Gay Marriage: Evidence That the Nation Is in the Biblically Foretold Age of Apostasy" by Dr. James Taylor

Posted on June 11, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A friend emailed me this link to a news article. She said it has been published on Yahoo but was taken down very quickly. It is hosted on CNS News (a conservative news site).

The author is Dr. James Taylor, the blurb about him at the end of the article states, “Senior Pastor at Christ’s Church of Norman in Norman, Oklahoma. http://www.ccnonline.biz. He is the author of the forthcoming book “It’s Biblical, Not Political: How to Line Candidates up Biblically.”

His article is titled:

Gay Marriage: Evidence That the Nation Is in the Biblically Foretold Age of Apostasy

It’s very good. I won’t re-post the entire article here because it’s long but it is worth a read. And bookmark. Or download, you never know how long things are going to stay up or available these days. Here are some excerpts:

Dozens of books have been written in recent years by liberal theologians in an attempt to demonstrate that homosexuality, homosexual relationships, and homosexual marriage are fully consistent with Biblical Christianity. I have grown weary of reading that King David was a homosexual because he loved Jonathan, or that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of a lack of hospitality, or – my personal favorite – that the Bible never actually addresses the issue of homosexual behavior.

I would suggest that the fact that some of such foolishness comes from persons who once professed to be Christians is yet further evidence of the fact that the nation – indeed the world – is well along in the Biblically-foretold age of apostasy. During such a period, we are warned about the prevalence of false teachers. How can we tell whether a teacher is false? Who can we rely on? But for the fact that we have the Word of God, we would be adrift on such matters.
…

The Book of Romans gives us a description of the end-times society when Jesus will return and God will pour out His wrath, beginning with Chapter 1: “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise they became fools.” I have seen men with degrees, piled on top of degrees that get up and say how you and I evolved from monkeys. Maybe they did, but I sure didn’t! Some of the greatest intellectual minds of the universe talk about how we evolved from a single cell protoplasmic blob! That is beyond the comprehension of the mind. If you saw a Boeing 747 flying across the sky, wouldn’t you assume that because it could fly, it can carry people, its seats are placed in rows, and that it can do all the things it can do; wouldn’t you assume that somebody thought it up, and somebody put it together? Certainly you would not conclude that it was the accidental product of a tornado blowing through a junkyard. Yet, the same mind can look in the sky and see a bird fly by and say, “product of chance.”

Charles Mahoney
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, exhibited 1936

Please go to the link to read more. It might help coalesce your thoughts or give you biblical talking points on this important end time issue.

drive by pneumatology, prophecy, science, steven lawson, the onion, todd friel, volcanoes

The Onion hilarity, bible study fellowship recipes, a scientist’s agitation, Drive By Theology, WWUTT?

Posted on June 11, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Thursday is grocery shopping day. I want to go early since it is supposed to be very hot and my car AC doesn’t work anymore. My usual routine is suspended for today, so no deep theological thoughts. 🙂 Here are a few things for your consideration.

I have Bible study in my home. Here are two recipes I enjoy making in order to have something on hand to serve the guests. My mama taught me that. She taught me manners and hospitality. It is a dying art, I think. I like these 2 recipes because they are inexpensive, use only a few ingredients, are easy to make, and are low calorie. They also cook fast, something to consider in hot Georgia during the summer.

Banana Oatmeal ‘cookies’
These are gluten free and sugar free. Though the recipe calls for a small bit of sugar, I omit it. I use banana, oatmeal, raisins, and sunflower seeds. That’s it. They are tasty and filling.

The write-up says, “I’d very loosely call these treats cookies. Why? The recipe is basically two ingredients, oats and bananas, plus a few add-ins. Also, it’s pretty healthy. Probably with my add-ins they’re only about 40 calories each, but don’t let that scare you. These “cookies” are actually very tasty, like baked banana oatmeal in portable form.”

Two-Ingredient Angel Food Pineapple Cake
This recipe uses a box angel food cake and a 20 ounce can crushed pineapple, in its own juice. That’s it. Don’t even grease the pan, the cake won’t rise. I stir the the ingredients together by hand and let sit for 2-3 minutes. It froths up. Then pour into a baking dish. I use a 13-inch glass dish. Bake for the allotted time and that is it! Top with Cook Whip if desired, or fresh fruit.

As far as beverages go, I never have any that other people enjoy on hand. I don’t drink sodas or juice because of the sugar. I do always have a jug of cold water in the fridge and usually a jug or two of chilled herb tea. Chilled green tea with lemon is refreshing to serve. I know most people down south drink ‘sweet tea’ but I just can’t serve that. It’s gross.

As a person who studies prophecy and has from the beginning of her Christian walk been interested in last things, I found this spoof-news piece from The Onion laugh out loud funny. I mean, I laughed hard from my gut.

Experts Say Best Option Now Is Keeping Nation As Comfortable As Possible Till End

WASHINGTON—Saying there were no other options remaining and that continued intervention would only prolong the nation’s suffering, experts concluded Tuesday that the best course of action is to keep the United States as comfortable as possible until the end.

According to those familiar with its condition, the country’s long, painful decline over the past several decades has made it clear that the most compassionate choice at this juncture is to do whatever is possible to ensure America is at ease during its last moments.

“We need to accept the fact that the U.S. doesn’t have long—simply helping it pass that time in comfort is the humane thing to do,” said economist Danielle Martin, speaking on behalf of a large group of experts ranging from sociologists and historians to lawmakers and environmentalists, all of whom confirmed they had “done everything [they] could.” “Attempting to stabilize the country in its current enfeebled state would not only be extremely expensive, but it would also cause unnecessary agony as it enters this final stage. With how hard the nation is struggling to perform even basic functions, letting it meet its end naturally is the merciful decision here.”

What "Family" is ABC from?! Young & Hungry review (UPDATED)

Posted on June 10, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Update at bottom.

As I mentioned the other day, I’m in summer mode now. As I’m a kindergarten teacher aide in Special Education, my employment has suspended for the summer months. This is one of the things I love about my job 😉

I am old enough to remember basic television that came with reception only as good as the antenna on top of the TV and ended at midnight or 1am with the Star Spangled Banner and then a test pattern until dawn and The Today Show came on. You watched what was on when it was on and that was it.

Then in 1983 cable came to me in college in Maine and rather than study I just watched MTV endlessly on my 9-inch Sony. I already had HBO. Yay!

Anyway one of the things I enjoy in the summer is time to kick back and watch stuff. What a boon it is to be able to watch anything, anytime on streaming Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime, or Youtube or well, just about ‘station! We are truly living in amazing times.

However the quality has not kept up. When evening, TV watching time rolls around, I search and search and search and most often I find nothing to watch. Ten thousand programs available at any time and nothing on. Bruce Springsteen sang about this in 1992.

57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)

I bought a bourgeois house in the Hollywood hills

With a trunkload of hundred thousand dollar bills

Man came by to hook up my cable TV

We settled in for the night my baby and me

We switched ’round and ’round ’til half-past down

There was fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on

Sometimes it takes me a few hours to find anything to watch. By the time I find a title, go to IMDB and read reviews, try the program for a few minutes, find it’s actually disgusting, and then start all over, it’s time for bed.

I’m not averse to watching kids’ shows. I am not a huge fan of cartoons, but The Brady Bunch or Full House has in recent times passed before my eyes. So the other night I tried something on Netflix, an ABC Family show. The synopsis went like this:

Set in San Francisco, a wealthy entrepreneur Josh (Jonathan Sadowski) hires a food blogger named Gabi (Emily Osment) to be his new personal chef.

Sounds promising! A family show! Foodies! Cookery/chefery! Nice scenery! A family show!

Aw! So cute!

I watched a show and a half and then turned it off in disgust and outrage. That’s 29 minutes before I called it quits and shook my head in absolute amazement.

Within the first ten minutes the young woman had slept with her boss, who until a few minutes before had been engaged to a woman, who in turn later admitted to sleeping with someone else. The homosexual butler/aide made numerous quips about gay culture, and the double entendres from everyone were disgusting. Jokes about size of penis, and ‘once you go black you never go back’ were just two that I remember. Gay sex, pre-marital sex, adulterous sex, broken vows, lies, drunkenness, thievery, nudity, clandestinely videotaped sex, self-centeredness, selfishness, and immodesty were just a few of the “family” values being presented on this show within the first few minutes.

Episode 3 is titled Young & Lesbian where according to the summary “Josh hosts a dinner with the deciding editor of a “30 Under 30″ list hoping to impress her, only to find out she is more interested in Gabi.” The next episode after that is titled, “Young & Pregnant, Gabi worries that she might be pregnant.”

I’m not surprised, that much, that our culture reflects these values. But I am astounded at the casualness they are shown to children. This is the description for the ABC Family channel:

ABC Family is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney–ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The channel generally offers contemporary as well as family-oriented programming aimed at a wide audience, but primarily features series and movies aimed at teenage girls and young women; its programming includes off-network syndicated reruns and original series, feature films and made-for-TV original movies, and some religious programming. The network was founded in 1977 as an extension of televangelist Pat Robertson’s Christian television ministry, and eventually evolved into The Family Channel by 1990…

WOW! How far they have fallen. It is no surprise that the world acts like the world, but it is saddening to me that our youngest and most vulnerable are being deliberately brainwashed this way. Every perversity imaginable was immediately presented from the opening moments of the show. Though the set was appealingly designed in bright, Disney colors, it belies a poison akin to the color of gangrene.

I opened this essay with a retrospective of ‘back in my day’. I related to you the facts of the broadcast matter, but the fact of the content of what was broadcast is equally applicable. Any ONE of the sins presented so immediately and casually in the first episode of “Young & Hungry” back in my day would immediately have merited censoring if the television show was aimed at children, say, The Brady Bunch. We all learned a lesson about not being a Tattle-Tale from season 2’s The Brady Bunch. Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color on Sunday Nights featured true family friendly shows and movies. I remember watching Lassie, Gentle Ben, Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, The Monkees, The Partridge Family, Gunsmoke, Andy Griffith, Carol Burnett, and more.

In one generation have the sins which Jesus called an abomination become so palatable and normal, sins for which He smote four entire cities in brimstone, as to be family fare? Yes.

Top L-R: Monkees, Bradys, Lassie.
Bottom L-R: Gentle Ben, Disney, Andy.
Middle: Sex, perversity, adultery, AKA millennial family fare

Once the truth is suppressed in unrighteousness and the Creator is denied, as per Romans 1:18-19, it does not take long for the trajectory to play itself out as the rest of Romans tells us:

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Do you know the ratings for Young & Hungry are through the roof? They are heartily applauding sin. Note how the ratings began high and only got higher as the first season progressed. And the show has been picked up for season 2.

Source IMDB

In 1974 the American public expressed strong outrage that a scene in the movie Born Innocent contained a lesbian rape scene and even was used in promotional ads aired during the afternoon. Outrage was so strong that the FCC instituted “Family viewing hour“. Forty years later Family programming includes a comedic plotline about lesbian lust. The very children parents in 1974 sought to protect from such fodder are now grown ups watching, applauding and seeking more, and calling it family viewing. Oh, how we have crumbled.

Nothing of what I’m saying is any surprise and hasn’t actually been said before. Like, from Newt Minow-

May 9, 1961 that Newt Minow, then the young head of the Federal Communications Commission, gave what would be called the Wasteland Speech:

When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.

His talk hit like a bomb. Mr Minow is still alive and in 2011 he gave another speech, in which he joked that his children threatened to put on his tombstone “A Vaster Wasteland” because things have only gotten much worse of course. Here is a snippet from Mr Minow’s talk in 2011—

I knew broadcasters would not be happy [in 1961]. My favorite response was from the Hollywood producer Sherwood Schwartz, who named the sinking ship in Gilligan’s Island after me. The “vast wasteland” was a metaphor for a particular time in our nation’s communications history, and to my surprise it became part of the American lexicon. It has come to identify me. My daughters threaten to engrave on my tombstone: On to a Vaster Wasteland. But those were not the two words I intended to be remembered. The two words I wanted to endure were public interest. To me that meant, as it still means, that we should constantly ask: What can communications do for our country? For the common good? For the American people?

We did some great things, to be sure. We expanded choice with public broadcasting, cable, and satellites. Sesame Street became one of the most-watched television programs in the world. Our televised presidential debates, once groundbreaking and then abandoned until 1976, became the most substantive view of our presidential campaigns. We launched the first communications satellite in 1962. On a visit to the space program, President Kennedy asked me about the satellite. I told him that it would be more important than sending a man into space. “Why?” he asked. “Because,” I said, “this satellite will send ideas into space, and ideas last longer than men.”

But our failures were equally dramatic, particularly in using television to serve our children and to improve our politics. For 50 years, we have bombarded our children with commercials disguised as programs and with endless displays of violence and sexual exploitation. We are nearly alone in the democratic world in not providing our candidates with public-service television time. Instead we make them buy it—and so money consumes and corrupts our political discourse.

Man corrupts. He is fallen and everything he touches is cursed or polluted. I feel for parents who seek opportunities to present entertaining clean shows to their children. Let me tell you, ABC Family ain’t it.

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 3:1-8)

And take note: those verses describe not the world, but the church.

We know these things and we trust the Lord’s word is true. Though there are predicted days of difficulty, He also made promises to the good. He will return and take us with Him. He will keep us from the hour of trial that is to come upon the whole world. He has prepared unimaginable treasures for us. He is our strength in the dark days and our source of joy amid the pollution.

At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. (1 John 2:8)

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UPDATE

My premise was that within one generation the cultural understanding and acceptance of moral/immoral behavior has been reversed. Today Al Mohler was interviewed by The Gospel Coalition on this exact topic. Here is one relevant excerpt

Albert Mohler on How to Survive a Moral Revolution

Watch the full nine-minute video to hear Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, explain how in the span of a generation an entire moral understanding was reversed, what Christian faithfulness looks like in our day, and more.

TGC: How did in the span of a generation an entire moral understanding in North America become reversed? And how did this moral revolution happen so fast?

Mohler: We’ve never experienced anything like this. . . . And the bottom line is that no part of the culture is going to be left untouched. . . . We haven’t had any moral revolution on this scale in human history. The first Christian answer is secularization. . . . This could only have happened after modernity had so shifted the worldview of most of the people in what we might would call the industrialized world. . . . That’s made all these changes inevitable.

Watch the full 9-minute interview at the link above.

end time, mockers and scoffers, prophecy, rapture, second coming

The Lord is not slow…the rapture will happen

Posted on May 31, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

On one of my older posts, I received yet another comment telling me that I am delusional. Why? Because I believe the Lord’s word that He will return for His bride in the rapture and then render wrath onto the sinning world.

“Aw, they’ve been saying that since the first Christians!” the commenter said. I agree. The Lord told us early on that He will return and take us to where He is. He is preparing a place for us and He will bring us there in His timing.

The passage in 2 Peter 3:1-10 says,

The Day of the Lord Will Come

1This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

8But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,a not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

And it’s true, they are saying it. What is also true is that we still believe it. Our Lord does not lie. No lie can pass His lips.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible explains about the mockers–

Now therefore let us see how this point stands, both on the believer’s part and on the part of these seducers: the believer not only desires that he may come, but, having a promise that he will come, a promise that he himself has made and often repeated, a promise received and reported by faithful witnesses, and left upon sure record, he is also firmly and fully persuaded that he will come:

on the other hand, these seducers, because they wish he never may, therefore do all that in them lies to cheat themselves and others into a persuasion that he will never come. If they cannot deny that there is a promise, yet they will laugh at that very promise, which argues much higher degrees of infidelity and contempt: Where is the promise, say they, of his coming?

III. We are also forewarned of the method of their reasoning, for while they laugh they will pretend to argue too. To this purpose they add that since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation, v. 4. This is a subtle, though not a solid way of reasoning; it is apt to make impressions upon weak minds, and especially upon wicked hearts. Because sentence against them is not speedily executed, therefore they flatter themselves that it never will, whereupon their hearts are fully set in them to do evil (Eccl. 8:11);

thus they act themselves, and thus they would persuade others to act; so here, say they, “The fathers have fallen asleep, those are all dead to whom the promise was made, and it was never made good in their time, and there is no likelihood that it ever will be in any time; why should we trouble ourselves about it? If there had been any truth or certainty in the promise you speak of, we should surely have seen somewhat of it before this time, some signs of his coming, some preparatory steps in order to it; whereas we find to this very day all things continue as they were, without any change, even from the beginning of the creation.Since the world has undergone no changes in the course of so many thousand years, why should we affright ourselves as if it were to have an end?”

Thus do these scoffers argue. Because they see no changes, therefore they fear not God, Ps. 55:19. They neither fear him nor his judgments; what he never has done they would conclude he never can do or never will.

IV. Here is the falsehood of their argument detected. Whereas they confidently had said there had not been any change from the beginning of the creation, the apostle puts us in remembrance of a change already past, which, in a manner, equals that which we are called to expect and look for, which was the drowning of the world in the days of Noah. This these scoffers had overlooked; they took no notice of it. Though they might have known it, and ought to have known it, yet this they willingly are ignorant of (v. 5), they choose to pass it over in silence, as if they had never heard or known any thing of it; if they knew it, they did not like to retain it in their knowledge; they did not receive this truth in the love of it, neither did they care to own it.

Note, It is hard to persuade men to believe what they are not willing to find true; they are ignorant, in many cases, because they are willing to be ignorant, and they do not know because they do not care to know. But let not sinners think that such ignorance as this will be admitted as an excuse for whatever sin it may betray them into.

Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 2439). Peabody: Hendrickson.

The Lord will return for His Bride. The Lord has made me ready by His grace. Since then I seek to live a holy life among the priesthood of believers and as a witness to the very ones who scoff at His soon return. So the question is, are you ready?

EPrata photo, with Pixlr post processing